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THE 



FARMER'S MINE, 



OR 



SOURCE OF WEALTH, 

BEING A COMPILATION, WITH THE ADDITION OF NEW AND IMPORTANT 
INFORMATION ON THE SUBJECT OF MANURE, TOGETHER WITH THE 
MOST APPROVED METHODS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF VEGE- 
TABLE MANURE, BY WHICH THE FARMER CAN OBTAIN 
IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME, AS MUCH MANURE 
OF THE RICHEST QUALITY AS HE PLEASES. 

TO WHICH IS ADDED, 

PRODUCTIVE FARMING, 

BY JOSEPH A. SMITH. 



To the Farmer, Manure must bo the first thing, and it must be the last thing ; with 
it he can do everything, without it, nothing. — Gavlord. 



BY HENRY HEERMANCE. 



REVISED AND CORRECTED BY 

A. B. ALLEN ; 



EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 




NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY HENRY HEERMANCE, 

AND FOR SALE BY SAXTON & MILES, 
Office of the American Agriculturist, 205 Broadway. 

1843. f 





Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by 

HENRY HEERMANCE, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



6 



; 4 J 



S. W. BENEDICT & CO., PRINT., 
128 Fulton St., N. Y. 



S t3 

M 4b 






CONTENTS— PART I 



Introduction, . 
Salts, . 
Marl, . 
Gypsum, ; 

Ashes, . 

Salt, . 

Salt and Lime mixed, 

Action of Manures, 

Vegetable Manures, 

CHAPTER X. 
Manures produced by the dead or dry parts, 

CHAPTER XI. 
Manures produced by seeds and fruits, 



CHAPTER I. 

CHAPTER II. 
CHAPTER III. 
CHAPTER IV. 
CHAPTER V. 
CHAPTER VI. 
CHAPTER VII. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
CHAPTER IX. 



Page 
9 

15 

36 

49 

53 

58 

70 

72 

75 

81 

83 



CONTENTS 

Page 
CHAPTER XII. 

Manures produced from the herbage of fresh water, . . 85 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Artificial Manures, ...... 87 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Manures produced by Marine plants, . . . ; 1 14 

CHAPTER XV. 

Animal Manures, . . . . . .116 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Animal offals, . . . . . . .122 

CHAPTER XVn. 

Charcoal and Soot, . . . . . .129 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Excrements of Birds, ...... 136 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Night Soil— Poudrette, ..... 138 

CHAPTER XX. 

Liquid Manures, . . . . . .142 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Animal and Animalized Black, . . ; .152 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Manufacture of disinfected Manures, . . . .155 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Yard Manure, . . . . . . .158 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Composts and Liquids, . . , . •. .168 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Different Methods for the Preparation or Manufacture of 
Vegetable Manure, . . . . . .173 



CONTENTS— PART II. 



Page 
Preface, .-..-. ^ 185 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory Observations, • . . . .187 

CHAPTER II. 

Some Account of the Simple or Elementary Bodies found (com- 
bined or uncombined) in Animals, Plants, and Soils, . 200 

CHAPTER III. 

Plants and Animals are both alike endowed with Life ; the 
Elementary Materials and many of the Proximate Principles 
of Animal and Vegetable matter are precisely identical — they 
have similar Organs essential to their growth and reproduc- 
tion, and are nourished or destroyed by the same agencies, 210 

CHAPTER IV. 

Of the Elementary Composition of Water ; of the Composition 
of the Atmosphere ; and of the artificial Application of Wa- 
ter to Grass Lands, . . . . . .232 

CHAPTER V. 

Of the Nature of Vegetable Growth ; the true use of Vegeta- 
ble Mould or Humus ; and of the Sources of the Elementary 
Constituents of Plants, . 238 

CHAPTER VI. 

Of the Sources of the Saline, Earthy, and other Unorganized 

Constituents of Vegetables, ..... 259 

CHAPTER VII. 
Of the necessary Relation between the Composition of a Soil 
and the Vegetables it is fitted to raise. Fallowing and 
Green Crops considered as Vegetable Manure, . . 265 



CONTENTS 



Page 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Of the Nature and correct Use of the Excrements of Animals 
considered as Manure ; the Mode of its Action and Preserva- 
tion. — Bone Dust, and dead Animal Matter, . . 276 

CHAPTER IX. 

Of the comparative Value of Vegetable Manure, as contrasted 
with Animal Excrements, ..... 295 

CHAPTER X. 

Of Manures of Mineral Origin, or Fossil and Artificial or Che- 
mical Manures ; their Preparation, and the Manner in which 
they Act. — Of Lime in its different States ; its Operation as 
a Manure. — Of Alkalies, and Common Salts, as to their 
Action upon the Land, ..... 298 

CHAPTER XI. 

Of the Composition of Productive Soils, and of the Agency of 
the Elements in their Natural Formation, from the Rocks 
upon which they rest, . 308 

CHAPTER XII. 

Of the Chemical Analysis of Soils, and how far this is practi- 
cable by the Farmer, ..... 320 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Of Advertised "Fertilizers" for the Soil, . . .325 



PREFACE. 



In the following compilation, I have selected largely 
from the " Farm House of the 19th Century," also from 
Dana, Gaylord, Liebig, and several of the agricultural 
papers of the day. The object has been, to present 
the subject in a form calculated to interest and instruct 
our farmers. We have long witnessed the want of econo- 
my and skill in fertilizing the. soil, and have made some 
small effort to correct the evil. A full view has been 
given of the different substances used to enrich the soil, 
together with the different modes practised in different 
countries. 

It only remains for our farmers to avail themselves of 
the information furnished here, especially of the improved 
method for manufacturing vegetable manure, and the feed 
of their pastures and yield of their harvests will be 
greatly increased ; thereby filling their pockets, and mak- 
ing the book, to them, what its title claims, " The Farmer's 

Mine, or Source of Wealth." 

H. Heermance. 
New York, September, 1843. 



THE 



FARME ITS MINE. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 



Of all the pursuits to which mankind, from necessity or 
inclination, have devoted themselves, there is none more 
honorable — certainly none more useful — than that of 
agriculture. Perfect agriculture is the true foundation 
of all trade and industry — it is the foundation of the 
riches of States. To pursue this business successfully, 
knowledge, extensive and varied, is required ; for, 
although a man may succeed by following the beaten 
paths of his predecessors, occasions will frequently arise, 
when the end desired may be attained by methods much 
shorter than those usually adopted, if the farmer is able 
to form and apply them. It is here that science has, 
within a few years, rendered the most essential aid to 
agriculture. Sometimes, reasoning from well known 
effects to their causes, the agricultural chemist has 
placed in the hands of the farmer the means of producing 
results, always desirable, but which, under the older sys- 
tems of farming, with his utmost care, he frequently failed 
of obtaining. Again, taking well-established facts in 
animal or vegetable physiology as his starting point, he 
has arrived at results of the highest practical importance, 
and is enabled to render more certain and effective the 
2 



10 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

more tardy operations of nature. In no department of 
agricultural industry, it is believed, have the labors of 
science been more beneficial or more apparent than in 
that of the preparation and use of manures ; certain it 
is, there is no department more deserving attention, or 
where an elucidation of the principles and laws that 
govern the growth of plants, acts with a more direct 
and energetic influence. 

The true farmer, no less a sage than the ancient ora- 
tor, who gave to action the first, second, and third place 
in eloquence, will answer, if it is asked him, What is his 
first requisite ? Manure. What second 1 Manure. What 
third 7 Manure. These answers are to be united. Ac- 
tion and manure are the first and last requisites in agri- 
culture, and in the attempt to show what is the last, and 
how it acts, will be offered every inducement to action. 

Definition. — A definition of the term manure may be 
necessary, in order to treat the subject understandingly, 
as different individuals use the word in widely different 
senses, some in a wide, and some in a limited one. A 
few instances of the meaning put upon the term will be 
given from a few of the modern writers who have ad- 
verted to this topic. Thus Dr. Leiber, in his German 
Conversations Lexicon, defines manure to be "vegeta- 
ble, animal, and mineral matters, introduced into the soil 
to accelerate vegetation, and increase the production 
of crops." The Encyclopaedia, published by the London 
Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, thus 
defines it : — " Every substance which has been used to 
improve the natural soil, or to restore to it the fertility 
which is diminished by the crops annually carried away, 
has been included in the name of manure." Loudon, in 
his great work on Agriculture, says — " Every species of 
matter capable of promoting the growth of vegetables, 
may be considered as manure." Prof. Low, in his Ele- 
ments of Agriculture, says — c * All substances which, 
when mixed with the matter of the soil, tend to fertilize 
it, are in common language termed manures." Mr 



INTRODUCTION. II 

Johnson, in his " Farmers' Encyclopaedia," lately pub* 
lished, says — " A manure may be defined to be any fer- 
tilizing compound or simple ingredient added to a soil, 
of which it is naturally deficient." The definitions of 
Prof. Liebig and Dr. Dana, two of the latest writers on 
the subject, do not differ essentially from those already 
given. Of these definitions, I prefer the most simple 
and comprehensive, that of' Loudon, and in this paper 
shall consider the term manure as embracing every sub- 
stance capable of promoting the growth of plants. 

Manures, by some, are classed as earthy, organic, and 
saline ; others divide them into animal and vegetable, 
mineral and mixed manures, and some speak of them as 
composed only of geine or humus and salts. Others 
class them as organic and inorganic ; but these divisions 
are of little consequence, as every farmer understands 
that manure is the result of decomposition or change ; and 
that, whether organic, that is, derived from animal or 
vegetable matter ; or inorganic, such as the earths, clay, 
lime, the alkalies, &c, it is only efficient when presented 
to plants in certain forms, such as decomposition, division 
or solution. In France they have terms to distinguish 
those substances which act mechanically in improving the 
texture of the soil, from those which act directly in the 
nourishment of the plant. The former class of substances 
they call amendements, and the latter ones engrais. It is 
probable, however, that the system which considers all 
manures as consisting of humus or geine. and salts, com- 
prehending in the latter term all the mineral substances 
that enter into the growth or nourishment of vegetables, 
will eventually be found the most simple, and at the same 
time the most accurate of all the proposed divisions of 
manures. Thus, humus constitutes the source of the car- 
bon, forming the principal part of the structure of plants ; 
and the salts, where they do not enter into the structure of 
plants, are active in preparing the other inorganic elements, 
and exciting the vegetable organs in their reception and 
appropriation of nutriment. 



12 THE FARMER^ MINE. 

Humus or Geine, is simply decomposed animal and ve- 
getable matter ; and as from it, by the action of oxygen, 
carbonic gas is derived, to be absorbed by water and 
taken up by the roots, or mixed with the atmosphere and 
taken up by the leaves of plants ; or, as some agricultural 
chemists with good reason suppose, is under certain cir- 
cumstances dissolved, or is soluble, and thus rendered fit 
for immediate nourishment to plants, it must be considered 
the most important item in the production of manures. 
The salts, which are the most efficient in aiding vegeta- 
tion, or the most active manures, are those formed from 
the alkalies and their various combinations. Thus, from 
pure lime or calcium, is formed, by the union with carbo- 
nic acid, carbonate of lime ; with phosphoric acid, phos- 
phate of lime, the base of bones, one of the most efficient 
of fertilizers ; with sulphuric acid, sulphate of lime, or gyp- 
sum, the value of which is well understood ; and so with 
the other alkalies, which, in their combinations, form sub- 
stances of the utmost consequence to plants. It is well 
known that the outer covering of some kinds of cane 
contains so much flint or silex as to strike fire with steel ; 
and some of the grasses contain this substance in such 
quantity that their ashes will melt into glass with potash. 
Now, this hardness, so necessary to their perfection, could 
not be attained unless this flint had been rendered soluble 
by union with an alkali, forming a silicate of potash, and 
by this solubility been rendered fit for the action and ap- 
propriation of the plant. 

Food of Plants. — If we would know what kind of food 
is required by plants, one of the first steps necessary is to 
ascertain of what the plants themselves are composed. 
The combinations of matter may be said to be absolutely 
endless; but the original elements of this multitude of 
combinations are few in number. Chemistry has detected 
only some fifty-five substances incapable of further reduc- 
tion, or what are called simple substances ; and of these, 
strange as it may appear, only four, except in proportions 
merely accidental, go to the formation of plants. Of these 
the first is Carbon. This forms from 40 to 50 per cent by 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

weight, of the plants cultivated for food ; and is therefore 
most important to animals and to man. Carbon is an ele- 
mentary substance, endowed with a considerable range of 
affinity. With oxygen it unites in two proportions, form- 
ing the gaseous compounds known under the names of 
carbonic acid and carbonic oxide. The former of these is 
emitted in immense quantities from many volcanoes and 
mineral springs, and is a product of the combustion and 
decay of organic matter. It is subject to be decomposed 
by various agencies, and its elements then arrange them- 
selves into new combinations. Carbon is familiarly known 
as charcoal, but in this state it is mixed with several 
earthy bodies ; in a state of absolute purity it constitutes 
the diamond. 

The second of these simple substances, is Oxygen, The 
quantities of this substance are immense ; and though we 
are acquainted with it only in the form in which it exists 
in the air, nearly one-half of the solid crust of the globe, 
21 per cent of the atmosphere, eight pounds in every nine 
of water, and more than one-half of the living bodies of 
all plants and animals, are oxygen. In an isolated state 
it is a gaseous body, possessed of neither taste nor smell. 
It is slightly soluble in water, and hence is usually found 
dissolved in rain and snow, as well as in the water of 
running streams. It is the agent employed in effecting 
the union and disunion of a vast number of compounds. 
It is superior to all other elements in the extensive range 
of its affinities. The phenomena of combustion and de- 
cay are examples of the exercise of its power. 

Hydrogen is the third substance peculiar to plants. 
This is the lightest of known substances, and forms a 
small part of the weight of all animal and vegetable bo- 
dies ; constitutes one-ninth part of the weight of water, 
but enters into the composition of none of the masses that 
go to form the crust of the globe, coal excepted. Hydro- 
gen is a very important constituent of vegetable matter. 
It possesses a special affinity for oxygen, with which it 
unites and forms water. The whole of the phenomena of 
decay depend upon the exercise of this affinity, and many 



14 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

of the processes engaged in the nutrition of plants Origin 
nate in the attempt to gratify it. Hydrogen, when in the 
state of a gas, is very combustible, and the lightest body 
known ; but it is never found in nature in an isolated con- 
dition* Water is the most common combination in which 
it is presented ; and it may be removed by various process- 
es from the oxygen with which it is united in this body. 

The fourth simple substance, entering into the formation 
of plants, is Nitrogen. This forms 79 per cent of the 
bulk of the atmosphere ; constitutes part of most animal 
and some vegetable substances ; is found in coal to the 
amount of one or two per cent, but does not exist in any 
other of the mineral masses constituting the crust of the 
globe. Although not an abundant substance, the impor- 
tance of it is not the less decided, and some of its functions 
are of the most indispensable kind. Its principal charac- 
teristic is an indifference to all other substances, and an 
apparent reluctance to enter into combination with them. 
When forced by peculiar circumstances to do so, it seems 
to remain in the combination by a pis inertias, ; and very 
slight forces effect the disunion of these feeble compounds. 
Yet nitrogen is an invariable constituent of plants, and 
during their life is subject to the control of the vital 
powers. But when the mysterious principle of life has 
ceased to exercise its influence, this element resumes its 
chemical character, and materially assists in promoting 
the decay of vegetable matter, by escaping from the com- 
pounds of which it formed a constituent. 

Plants, then, are composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 
and nitrogen; the first derived from carbonic acid, the 
second from the atmosphere, the third from the decompo* 
sition of water, and the fourth from ammonia absorbed by 
water, and taken up by the roots of the vegetables. Some 
of the earths are occasionally detected in plants, and salts 
of some kind are always present. In the preparation of 
manures, the principal object to be aimed at, it is evident, 
must be to supply the materials needed to furnish the carbon 
and the ammonia ; and these are found in the greatest abun- 
dance in dead or decomposed animal and vegetable matter. 



CHAPTER II. 



SALTS. 

To preserve due order, we will first notice those 
substances, which by some are denominated amendments ; 
by others, mineral manures ; in the preceding classification, 
Salts. These may be supposed to act in different ways. 

1st. They may act upon the soil by improving its texture, 
or by rendering soluble the parts of it which are insoluble, 
or by otherwise fitting it to promote the growth of plants. 

2d. They may act immediately upon the plant itself, by 
being received into its substance. 

The manner in which this action takes place upon the 
organs of the plant may elude our observation ; but this 
much may be admitted, that certain earths, oxides, and 
alkalies, combined with acids, pass into the substance of 
the plant, absorbed, it may be, in part, from the atmos- 
phere, but chiefly along with the aqueous portion of the 
sap, from the earth in which the roots are fixed. Some 
substances taken up in this latter mode, are known to act 
as poisons, while others exercise a beneficial action on the 
plant. 

We cannot generally distinguish when a mineral sub- 
stance acts upon the plant, through the medium of a 
change in the soil, or when it acts directly upon the plant 
itself. All that we truly know is, that certain earthy and 
alkaline bodies, or their saline combinations, applied to the 
soil, promote the growth of plants, and so, in the language 
of farmers, are manures. 



16 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

Lime. 

Of all the mineral substances known to us, lime is 
that which performs the most important part in improv- 
ing the soil and promoting the growth of vegetables. 
Lime is found in nearly all soils that are capable of sus- 
taining vegetation, and, in combination with different acids, 
in nearly all vegetable substances. 

Lime, as employed in agriculture and the arts, is derived 
from three distinct series or orders of rocks. 

1. From the rocks of the primary series. These are 
very compact and crystalline. They afford the finest of 
our marbles, and yield a pure lime. 

2. From the lower secondary or transition rocks. 
These, like the last, are hard and crystalline, and yield a 
lime of good quality. 

3. From the carboniferous rocks, or those of the middle 
secondary order. It is from this source that the largest 
supplies of the mineral are derived. Of this series is the 
mountain limestone, which is the most familiar to us, and 
the most generally employed in agriculture and the arts. 

4. From the upper secondary rocks. In this series is 
the magnesian limestone, which, from its possessing pecu- 
liar properties, to be afterwards adverted to, is termed hot- 
lime by agriculturists. 

Of the same order of rocks, too, namely, the upper 
secondary, are the lias and oolite, which are found in some 
parts of England, and the lime of which is employed for 
agricultural purposes. 

The last of the series of the upper secondary rocks is the 
chalk, which is found abundantly in the south-east coun- 
ties of England and in France, extending eastward 
through the central parts of Europe. 

Limestone, from whatever series of rocks derived, when 
submitted to the action of heat, loses the carbonic acid 
with which it was united, becomes a substance of an acrid 
nature, absorbs water with an evolution of heat, and, by 
this union, forms what is termed a hydrate. In absorbing 
water, it crumbles down by degrees, while at the same 
time it begins to imbibe carbonic acid from the atmosphere. 



LIME. 17 

In absorbing carbonic acid, the water of the hydrate is 
expelled, the carbonic acid taking its place. In this man- 
ner the lime recovers the principles which it had lost by- 
calcination. It becomes again a carbonate, without, how- 
ever, having recovered its hardness and external charac- 
ters. In proportion as its recomposition takes place, it 
loses the properties which it had acquired by calcination, 
ceases to be acrid and caustic, and its solubility in water 
is diminished. 

Lime is applied to the ground either in a state of hydrate, 
that is, immediately after being slacked, and when it still 
retains its caustic properties ; or in the state of carbonate, 
that is, after it has again absorbed carbonic acid from the 
surrounding medium and become mild. 

When the object is to supply calcareous matter to a soil 
in which it is deficient, it often appears to be unimportant 
whether it is applied as a carbonate or a hydrate. In the 
latter state, however, it is more perfectly divided, and may 
be spread more equally upon the surface, and better min- 
gled with the soil ; and further, in its caustic state, it pro- 
duces effects which it either does not produce in its mild 
state, or which it produces in a less degree. 

Lime, in its caustic state, is observed to exercise a pow- 
erful action in decomposing the ligneous parts of plants. 
The same effect is indeed produced by the action of mild 
lime, but in a less perceptible degree. 

Caustic lime, while it dissolves vegetable fibre, and ren- 
ders it soluble, has also the property of forming compounds 
of a soapy nature with the soluble portion of vegetable 
and animal substances, which compounds are not dissolved 
till after a considerable time. 

Caustic lime thus performs two functions apparently 
opposed to each other. It decomposes the inert vegetable 
matter of the soil, and then forms compounds which are 
not themselves readily soluble. 

Lime forms these insoluble compounds with almost all 
the soft animal or vegetable substances with which it can 
combine ; but these compounds, exposed to the combined 
2* 



18 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

action of the air and water, are altered in time ,' the lime 
gradually becomes a carbonate, the animal or vegetable 
matters are by degrees decomposed, and furnish new com- 
pounds capable of nourishing plants ; so that lime, in per- 
forming two functions seemingly opposed to each other, 
really promotes the fertility of the soil and the growth of 
plants. It first disposes certain substances insoluble in 
water to become soluble, while, by combining in part with 
substances which are soluble, it prolongs the nutritive 
action of soft vegetable and animal substances beyond the 
time in which they would have acted, if they had not 
entered into a combination with lime. 

Of this particular mode of action, an example may be 
given in one of the arts. When it is wished to carry off 
from the vegetable juices in the manufacture of sugar the 
animal substances which have been used, lime is employed, 
which combines with these substances, and rises with them 
to the surface of the liquid in the form of a thick scum, 
which is insoluble in water. This scum, laid upon the 
fields, is injurious to plants ; but when it is deposited in a 
ditch, and is allowed to ferment for a year, it forms one of 
the richest manures. Count Chaptal states that he has 
proved this fact during a period of many years in his manu- 
facture of beet-sugar, by employing in this manner the 
scum which is obtained by the first operation which is per- 
formed on the juice of the beet. 

In like manner the application of lime to night-soil, 
does not hasten the decomposition of this substance, but, 
on the contrary, forms with it a less soluble compound. It 
moderates its action, and renders its effects less sudden, 
but more permanent. 

Mixed, too, with any pure animal substance, lime does 
not waste it, as, reasoning from its action on vegetable 
fibre, we might infer. It hastens decomposition indeed, 
but then it forms with the substances decomposed com- 
pounds less easily decomposable. Hence it is not opposed 
to theory that lime should be applied to the soil at the 
same time with dung and other animal and vegetable sub- 
stances, as is frequent in the practice of farmers. 



LIME. 19 

Certain acids and acid combinations often exist in the 
soil or subsoil, and produce infertility. Lime, by forming 
new combinations with these bodies, frequently neutralizes 
their hurtful effects. Thus, if sulphate of iron, or green 
vitriol, which is a combination of sulphuric acid with the 
oxide of iron, exists in the soil, and lime be applied, the 
lime will combine with the sulphuric acid of the vitriol and 
form gypsum, and thus convert into fertilizing matter a 
substance which, in excess, is injurious. 

Now, the carbonate of lime performs only in part these 
several functions ; and although cases may exist where 
the application of the carbonate will be as effectual as 
that of the causae lime, yet, in the great majority of cases, 
it is better that lime be applied in its caustic than in its 
mild state. 

Absolute quicklime, however, i. e. lime at once taken 
from the lime-kiln, will decompose or destroy living plants ; 
but it is never employed in this state by the farmer. It is 
always slacked, and generally suffered to slack gradually 
in the air, in which case it also attracts some carbonic 
acid, and then it may be employed without injury even to 
plants when growing. 

Lime may be applied to the land in different ways, and 
at different periods. 

1. It may be laid on the surface of land which is in 
grass, and remain there until the land is plowed up for 
tillage, even though this should be several years after- 
wards. The lime, in this case, quickly sinks into the soil, 
and acting upon it, prepares it for crops when it is again 
tilled. 

2. It may be spread upon the ground, and covered by 
the plow, just after a crop of any kind has been reaped. 
In this case, it prepares the soil for the succeeding crops. 

3. It may be spread upon the surface even when plants 
are growing. This practice, however, though sometimes 
convenient, is rarely to be imitated. 

4. It may be, and is most frequently, applied during the 
season in which the land is in fallow, or in preparation 



20 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

for what are termed fallow crops. The manner of apply- 
ing it in these cases will be afterwards explained. 

5. It may be mixed with earthy matter, particularly 
with that containing vegetable remains ; in this case it 
forms a compost. 

The quantity of lime applied to soils is very various, 
and is dependent upon the nature of the soils, the climate, 
and other circumstances. In warmer countries, a smaller 
quantity need be used than in those that are cold and humid. 

The stiff clays for the most part require a larger pro- 
portion of it than the lighter soils ; and in the case of such 
soils as contain much undecomposed vegetable matter, as 
peat, a quantity should be applied sufficient to decompose 
effectually the inert fibre. 

In the north of England and south of Scotland, a mo- 
derate application of lime for the lighter soils is held to 
be 120 bushels heaped measure, and a medium dose for 
soils of different kinds about 130 bushels, though a much 
larger quantity than this is frequently applied in certain 
clay-land districts. I speak here of newly-calcined lime- 
stone; for when it has imbibed moisture and becomes 
ft hydrate, it swells out to about two times its former bulk. 

The periods at which doses of lime should be repeated, 
differ according to the quantity applied and the manner of 
using it. In cases where the large applications just 
spoken of are made, an effectual liming need not occur in 
less than fourteen or fifteen years. 

But, in other cases, lime is applied in smaller quantity, 
and more frequently, and there is nothing opposed to a 
sound theory in this practice. Nay, there is reason to in- 
fer that a more frequent application of lime, and in smaller 
quantity, is the most advantageous method of using it. 

The application of lime calls into powerful action the 
nutrient principles of the soil ; and hence, if land be 
severely cropped after lime has been used, it is reduced to 
a greater state of sterility than if the stimulant had not 
been applied. Lime, therefore, calculated as it is to pro- 
duce the best effects in fertilizing a soil, is frequently made 



LIME. 21 

the means, in the hands of an injudicious farmer, to injure 
it. This is especially observable in the case of light soils 
of an inferior kind. These are frequently so injured by 
injudicious cropping after the application of lime, that 
they are reduced to a state of the greatest barrenness. 
When soils are brought to this condition by scourging 
crops, they cannot be restored to fertility by a subsequent 
application of lime. So far from this, the future dose 
generally renders them more barren than before. The 
only good remedies are the application of vegetable and 
animal manures, and rest in grass. 

But although the stimulating properties of lime may be 
abused, it is an instrument of production of the highest 
importance in the hands of the skilful farmer. On land im- 
proved and cultivated for the first time, it exercises a very 
powerful influence, and it is difficult to conceive how in 
many parts such land could be improved at all without the 
assistance of this mineral. 

Lime is found to improve the quality of plants produced, 
to render those cultivated more productive of farine mat- 
ter, and even to cause species that were not before grow- 
ing naturally to occupy the ground. Thus, lime spread 
upon a piece of peaty land, is frequently found to eradicate 
in whole or in part the heaths, and to permit the grasses 
and clovers to take their place. 

Whenever it is found advisable to deepen a soil by 
plowing up a portion of the subsoil, the application of 
lime is the most speedy means presented to us of correct- 
ing the defects, or stimulating the productive powers, of 
the new substance exposed. 

To admit of the beneficial action of lime, the soil 
should be freed of superfluous water. Not lime only, but 
all manures, are inefficient when the land is saturated in 
consequence of the excess of wetness. 

In the ' Farm House of the 19th century,' we have the 
following valuable article on Lime : — 

Lime suits soils which do not already contain in excess 
the calcareous combinations. Every soil which consists of 
granitic debris, of slate, almost all the sandy clay soils, 



22 the farmer's mine. 

those moist arid cold soils of the immense argilo- 
siliceous table-lands which confine the basins of our lar?;e 
rivers, the ground upon which the fern, the small ajonc, 
the broom, the little white carex, and the whitish lichens 
grow spontaneously ; almost all the soils infested with 
beaded oats, dog's-tooth, agrostis, red sorrel and small 
motherwort ; that which yields only rye, potatoes and 
black grain ; where the sainfoin and most of the vegeta- 
bles of commerce do not succeed ; where, however, trees of 
every sort, and especially those of a resinous nature, the wild 
pine, the maritime pine, the larch, the Weymouth pine, and 
the chestnuts flourish better than in better soils ; all these 
soils do not contain the calcareous element, and all the 
amendments in which it is found will give them the quali- 
ties and cause them to yield the product of calcareous soils. 
But here, more than elsewhere, we must guard against 
too much haste ; the liming on a laro-e scale should not 
take place till after having succeeded in experiments upon 
a small, in different parts of the estate. 

Of the various modes of employing lime upon the soil. 

Three modes are principally in use for spreading lime. 
The first and the simplest, that which is employed in most 
places where lime is cheap, cultivation little advanced, and 
manual labor dear, consists in putting the lime immediately 
upon the soil in small heaps, distant from each other 
twenty feet in the mean, and containing, according to the 
dose administered, from one-half foot to one foot cubic 
measure. When the lime in consequence of its exposure 
to the air, is reduced to powder, it is spread upon the soil 
in such a way as to be equally diffused. 

The second method differs from the first in this, that we 
cover each heap with a thickness of from six inches to one 
foot of earth according to the size of the heap, and which 
equals five or six times the bulk of the slacked lime; 
when the lime begins to swell in slacking, the cracks and 
crevices of the heap are filled with earth, and when it is 
reduced to powder it is worked over, to mix the earth and 
the lime. If work is not driving, the same operation is 



LIME, 23 

repeated a fortnight "after, and in another fortnight the 
whole is spread upon the soil. 

The third process, used in countries the best cultivated, 
where lime is dear, and which unites all the advantages 
of liming without some of its inconveniences, consists in 
making compost of the lime and earth or mould. For this 
purpose a bed is first made of earth, mould or turf, one foot 
thick, of a length double its breadth ; the clods are broken ; 
and it is covered with a layer of lime one hectolitre to 20 
cubic feet (that is 3,5 cubic feet of lime to 20 of mould, or- 
about one-sixth), upon this lime is placed a second layer 
of earth, then a second of lime, then a third layer of earth 
and of lime, which is finally covered with earth. If the 
earth is moist and the lime fresh, eight or ten days will 
suffice to slack the lime ; the compost is then cut down 
and mixed ; it is again pitched over before being used, be- 
cause t\ie older and more perfect the mixture the more 
powerful is its effect upon the soil, and especially when it 
may have been made with earth' containing more humus. 
This method is most used in Belgium and the Netherlands ; 
it is almost the only one in Normandy ; it alone is prac- 
tised, and with the greatest success, in Sarthe. Lime in 
compost never injures the soil ; it carries with it the sur- 
plus of manure required by a surplus of products. Light 
gravelly or sandy soils can never be overcharged with it. 
Finally, this mode of applying lime to the soil seems to us 
the surest, most effective, and least expensive. 

The reduction of lime to powder by means of moment- 
ary immersion in water in baskets with handles can much 
hasten the liming, whether it be done immediately upon 
the soil or by means of compost ; a few hours then suf- 
fice instead of waiting a fortnight. If great rains succeed, 
this operation is not without inconveniences, for then the 
lime more easily turns into paste and this is what above 
all things should be avoided. 

The reduction of lime to powder, whether done sponta- 
neously or by immersion, produces in the compost a bulk 
one-half larger than lime in the stone ; ten cubic feet, for 
instance, produce fifteen. 



24 



THE FARMERS MINE. 



The liming in use in different countries. 

1. Liming in the Department of Ain.— The use of lime in 
this country dates back fifty years ; the soil limed at that 
period is still more productive than the neighboring soil 
not limed. Nevertheless, the liming is only beginning to 
extend itself, while marling, commenced fifteen years later, 
has already covered some thousands of acres ; this is be- 
cause marling is an operation within reach of the poor 
cultivators, because it is effected by manual labor only, 
while liming requires considerable advances, especially in 
a country where lime is dear, and the dose employed 
large. 

Indeed the doses vary from 60 to 100 bushels per acre, 
according to the nature of the soil, or rather according to 
the caprice of the cultivator. 

Although the limings here have not been practised with 
all the care and economy which are desirable, they have 
been very efficacious when the soil limed has been suffi- 
ciently drained. 

The registers of the products of three contiguous estates, 
during 12 years, 3 before and 9 during the limings, give 
us the means of appreciating their results. The quantity 
of seed and the products are calculated in double deca- 
litres. [The decalitre contains about 2 gallons andl pint.] 

Table of the products of the estate of Croisette. 





RYE. 


Wffl 


SAT. 


YEARS. 


Seed. 


Product. 


Seed. 


Product. 


1822 


110 


600 


24 


146 


1823 


110 


764 


24 


136 


1824 


110 


744 


24 


156 


1825 


107 


406 


27 


251 


182G 


106 


576 


28 


210 


1827 


100 


504 


30 


249 


1828 


90 


634 


36 


391 


1829 


82 


538 


48 


309 


1830 


60 


307 


60 


459 


1831 


78 


350 


48 


417 


1832 


55 


478 


68 


816 


1833 


61 


529 


52 


545 



LIME. 



25 



Table of the products of the estate of Meyzeriat. 





RYE. 


WHEAT. 


YEARS. 


Seed. 


Product. 


Seed. 


Product. 


1822 


120 


487 


16 


100 


1823 


120 


708 


16 


103 


1824 


120 


644 


18 


84 


1825 


112 


504 


28 


228 


1826 


120 


677 


20 


115 


1827 


115 


594 


20 


162 


1828 


118 


726 


40 


328 


1829 


104 


566 


41 


277 


1830 


79 


298 


71 


477 


1831 


91 


416 


43 


326 


1832 


79 


411 


75 


786 


1833 


76 


661 


48 


351 



Table of the products of the estate of Baronne. 





RYE. 


WHEAT. 


YEARS. 


Seed. 


Product. 


Seed. 


Product. 


1822 


110 


505 


22 


180 


1823 


110 


652 


22 


138 


1824 


110 


662 


24 


149 


1825 


102 


398 


32 


252 


1826 


110 


612 


32 


187 


1827 


107 


546 


34 


204 


1828 


98 


696 


35 


343 


1829 


84 


608 


40 


268 


1830 


91 


389 


59 


374 


1831 


92 


411 


40 


295 


1832 


70 


512 


80 


649 


1833 


75 


511 


51 


471 



The use of 3000 hectolitres (8255 bushels) of lime 
costing 6000 francs ($1142),' upon 32 hectares (72 acres) 
of ground, successively during nine years, has therefore 
more than doubled the product of winter grain, the seed 
being first deducted. The other crops of the estate have 
received a proportional increase, and the income of the 
proprietor by doubling has been increased annually by at 
least two-thirds of the capital sum expended in the pur- 
chase of lime, and yet he has not half his arable soil limed, 



26 The 

since of 76 hectares only 32 have received the amend- 
ment. 

Numerous other examples confirm these results, and it 
is shown particularly that the product of wheat is in- 
creased from twice to three times the seed, that rye lands 
pass from a product of from four to five times in rye to 
one of from seven to eight times in wheat, and that the 
other products have a proportional increase. The amelio- 
ration is much more considerable upon bad farms than 
upon good ones, — since it is two-thirds and more in wheat 
lands, and the crop is threefold in value upon rye lands. 

2. Flemish Limings. — The use of calcareous amendments 
in the department du Nord as well as in Belgium, appears 
to be as old as their good agriculture ; it is much less fre- 
quent in Belgium. The former and successive limings 
have, it would seem, furnished to .a great part of the soil 
all the calcareous matter which is for the present neces- 
sary ; but the department du Nord still receives lime, marl 
or ashes, almost whenever lime is not an original consti- 
tuent of the soil. In this country there is a distinction 
between deep liming and the liming of the rotation ; the 
first consists in giving to the soil, every 10 or 12 years, 
before the autumnal sowing, 4 cubic metres or 40 hecto- 
litres (about 110 bushels) of lime to the hectare (nearly 
50 bushels to the acre) ; the ashes of coal and of peat are 
usually mixed with the lime, and form from one-third to 
half the bulk. 

The liming; at each renewal of the rotation or upon the 
spring grains, is given in compost ; it is the regular prac- 
tice in this country, more even than in Belgium, upon the 
meadows and cold pastures which are not subject to irri- 
gation ; it warms the ground and increases and improves 
the products ; the older the compost is, the greater is the 
effect ; it is prolonged for 15 or 20 yearSj at the end of 
which it is renewed. 

The limings of Normandy, the oldest in France, are 
maintained about Bayeux, whilst elsewhere they are for- 
bidden in the leases. However, they still get all the sur- 



LIME, 27 

face which has need of them, but instead of an immediate 
application to the soil as formerly, the lime is almost al- 
ways in compost. 

3. Liming in Sarthe.—Of all modes, that of Sarthe 
seems to me preferable ; it is at the same time economical, 
productive, and guards the soil from exhaustion. It is 
applied once in three years — at each renewal of the rota- 
tion, at the medium dose of twelve bushels per acre ; in 
compost made beforehand with seven or eight times as 
much mould or good soil as lime. The compost is used 
upon the soil for the autumn sowing in alternate rows 
with dung. This process, which grows daily more suc- 
cessful, is much spread upon the banks of the Loire, and 
would seem worthy of adoption wherever the soil easily 
drains. 

We thought it our duty to insist upon the propriety 
and advantages of using lime and manure simultaneously. 
Here they do better still by employing the compost of 
lime and earth simultaneously w T ith dung ; hence for half a 
century since the people of Mans commenced their liming, 
the fruitfulness of the soil has not ceased to increase. 

The countries of which we have spoken are those parts 
of France where liming is most extensive , however, more 
than half the departments have commenced the practice, 
I think, and in one fourth it is thoroughly established. 
Doubtless the first trials may not everywhere succeed, 
and it would require a union of rare circumstances to cause 
some successful trials to be imitated by the masses ; still, 
instances of success multiply, and become centres of 
impulse which will propagate the amelioration. 

4. English Liming. — The use of lime in England 
seems to be established upon a different principle from 
that in France ; it is practised with such prodigality that 
there is frequently no room for the soil to be improved 
afterwards. Whilst in France we give lime to the extent 
of from one thousandth to one hundredth part of the ara- 
ble bed, that is from 12 to 120 bushels per acre, in .Eng- 
land they give from 1-100 to 6-100, or from 120 to 720 



28 the farmer's mine. 

bushels per acre. The full success of our method causes 
us to regard the English method as a piece of useless pro- 
digality. A capital five, six or ten times larger, is sacri- 
ficed without securing any better result. And, unless 
manure be afterwards lavishly bestowed, the future pro- 
ductiveness of the soil may be endangered in the hands of 
a greedy cultivator. However, on very moist soils there 
seems to have resulted little inconvenience, probably on 
account of the nature of the soil ; indeed such soils have 
by this means been rendered healthful and kept so for a 
long time. 

5. Liming upon the surface. — In Germany, where lim- 
ing and marling, like most other agricultural improve- 
ments, have lately taken a great development, besides 
the ordinary modes we find the use of lime upon the sur- 
face. It is sprinkled in spring upon rye with compost 
containing from 10 to 12 bushels to the acre fifteen days 
after having sown clover. 

It is also applied directly to the clover of the preceding 
year, in powder, and slacked in the water of the dung 
heap, in a dose one half less. Its effect upon the clover 
and the wheat which follows it is exceedingly good. 

In the Netherlands where lime is employed mixed with 
ashes, it is especially for mowing land natural or artificial, 
and is of course used upon the surface. 

Care to be taken in the use of lime. 

Whatever may be the mode in which lime is applied, it is 
essential that it, as well as all other calcareous amendments, 
should be employed in the shape of powder and not of 
paste, upon a soil that is not wet. We must altogether 
avoid, before covering it, all rain which can wet it, and 
reduce it to a porridge or paste, which essentially injures 
its effect, even more than any reasoning can explain. 

It should not be placed upon a soil whose surface is not 
naturally drained. Upon a marshy soil, unless the vegeta- 
ble bed is well dried, in a very moist soil where the water 
of the surface does not easily run off, the properties of 



LIME. 29 

the lime remain chained as it were, and do not appear at 
all till by new operations we have healed and dried the 
vegetable bed. 

On a clayey and very damp soil, marl, which is used in 
large quantity, is preferable to lime, because it more pow- 
erfully heals the productive bed. On a soil of this sort a 
deep plowing is a preliminary condition essential to suc- 
cess, because, while augmenting the depth of the vegetable 
bed, we also augment the means of healing the surface. 

Light, sandy or gravelly soil must not be overcharged ; 
for the inconsiderate use of lime may become dangerous 
on soils of this sort when they are too warm and not very 
deep. There are cases of its having burned up the crops. 

To have the lime produce its effect upon the first crop, it 
should be mixed with the soil some time before the sowing ; 
however, when it is used in compost it is sufficient that it 
should have been made some time previously. 

The lime or the compost spread dry upon a dry soil 
should be buried by a shallow first plowing or half-plow- 
ing preceded by a light harrowing, in order that the lime 
in the succeeding cultivation may remain as much as pos- 
sible in the middle of the vegetable bed. Indeed, the lime 
reduced to particles, naturally sinks in the soil ; it slips 
between the particles of clay and silex, and descending 
below the sphere of the nutrition of plants, is arrested be- 
neath the arable bed, and when it is abundant, then it 
forms by its combinations a sort of floor which stops the 
water and injures the crops very much ; this is the mis- 
chief of lime in a large dose buried by deep plowing. 

Different qualiiies of lime. 

It is necessary to know the quality of the lime which 
we use ; lime may be pure or may be mixed with silex, 
clay or magnesia. Pure lime is the most economical, the 
most active, and can produce the greatest effect with the 
least volume. 

Lime mixed with silex is used in larger quantities ; it takes 
the name of hot lime, like that which precedes, from which 
it differs little in the application except it requires more. 



30 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

Lime mixed with clay is the same as the hydraulic or 
water lime of the builders ; it appears that the two former 
favor the growth of seed more, and the latter is more 
favorable to forage, to the growth of the straw, or the 
legumes ; it is more nourishing to the soil, but requires a 
larger dose. 

Magnesian lime is very active, but exhausts the soil if 
given in too large a dose or not followed with abundant 
manuring. It has exhausted some districts in England 
and large tracts in America, and it is to it that most of the 
reproaches against lime belong. The nature of the lime 
used may be ascertained by very simple chemical pro- 
cesses. (See the section which treats of the analysis of 
soils at the end of the preceding chapter.) 

Of second timings. 

When the field limed returns to the condition in which 
it was before the operation ; when the same weeds appear 
and the crops are diminished, it is time to renew the lime. 
The period of the second liming will depend upon the 
dose of the first. When the dose has been small, it must 
be renewed entire, as is done in the Netherlands and Nor- 
mandy. When it has been large it may be reduced to 
one half. Besides, we should in this case take counsel of 
the state of the soil and experience, for there are some 
soils which require and consume larger doses than others. 

The doses of lime. 

The doses of the first as well as the second Innings 
vary with the consistence of the soil ; they should be small 
in light and sandy soils, they can without inconvenience be 
large in clay soils. The dose should also vary according 
to the drainage ; weak doses on ground where the water 
does not easily run off are little felt ; but if the dose is 
strong and the plowing deep, the lime facilitates the 
draining and healing of the soil. It is supposed that the 
dose ought also to increase with the annual amount of 



LIME. 3 1 

rain which falls in a country, because, as this amount 
increases, the greater is the drainage to be effected. 

However, the experiments of the department of Nord 
and of Sarthe seem to have pointed out the average dose 
which generally suits. Thus, the deep liming of du Nord 
which gives the soil every ten or twelve years forty-eight 
bushels per acre, a little more than four bushels per 
annum, which agrees with that of Sarthe which gives 
from ten to twelve bushels every three years ; the first 
gives at once what the other does by degrees. As both 
are an average, we may conclude that, the soil requires four 
bushels per acre per annum to sustain its fertility. Still, 
as neither the soil nor the plants consume this lime, it is 
probable that after a period, longer or shorter, the soil 
will have received so much as to need no more for a cer- 
tain space of time. 

Management of limed soils. 

After having endued the soil with great fecundity, and 
put it in condition to produce the most valuable crops, 
which are often the most exhausting, the farmer must 
take care to give it manures to compensate for the pro- 
ducts obtained, to use in litter and not for food half the 
straw raised, to cultivate forage on soil which henceforth 
produces it to advantage, to modify, in short, in the gene- 
ral and in the detail, his cultivation according to the new 
forces of his soil, the prices of the market and the conve- 
nience of the locality. However, there should be no haste 
to change the rotation : such an operation is long, diffi- 
cult, very expensive, and should not be undertaken except 
on thorough preparation. 

The effects of lime upon the soil. 

The effects of lime, although analogous, are not identi- 
cal with those of marl, and the qualities of limed soils dif- 
fer in some respects from those of calcareous soils ; the 
wheat of limed ground is sounder, fairer, gives less bran 



32 the farmer's mine. 

and more flour than that on soil not limed, on calcareous 
soil or on marled soil ; the berry on marled soil is greyer, 
yields more bran and more resembles wheat upon clover, 
though it is preferable to that ; the wheat upon limed soil 
bears more analogy to that upon land amended with 
leached ashes. The limed soil has less to fear from 
drought to its springing grain than the calcareous or the 
marled ; it is not liable to have its crop lodged, in the 
spring, at the moment of blossoming, when the sowing 
has been done upon a dry soil. Upon a limed soil the 
weeds and insects disappear, the ground acquires consis- 
tence when it is too light, and grows lighter when it is 
too clayey. The surface of an argilo-siliceous soil, before 
compact and whitish, grows mellow and turns reddish and 
as it were rotten, it dries, hardens and cracks by the heat, 
and dissolves and slacks by the rain which follows ; this 
spontaneous mellowing very much facilitates the labor of 
the cultivator, the struggle and progress of the roots 
through the soil and the mutual action of the atmosphere 
and the soil which remains open to its influence. 

Quantity of lime absorbed by vegetation. 
The vegetables of calcareous soils or those which have 
become such by amendment, contain in their ashes 30 per 
cent of carbonate or phosphate of lime which has been 
lost by the soil. But the products of a limed soil, of a 
medium quality, are nearly, during two years of the rota- 
tion, nine thousand weight of dry products per acre, which 
contains about one bushel of lime ; vegetation has therefore 
employed half a bushel of lime per year. We have seen 
that on an average more than three bushels are required 
per year ; vegetation therefore does not absorb in substance 
more than one-sixth of the lime which can be profitably 
administered to the soil ; the other five-sixths are lost, car- 
ried by descending water to lower beds, or enter into dif- 
ferent compounds ; a portion doubtless still remains in sub- 
stance in the soil, and goes to form that reserve which at 
length permits liming to be dispensed with for many 
years. 



LIME. 33 

Of the exhaustion of the soil by lime. 

Lime, it is said, only enriches old men, or it enriches the 
fathers and ruins the children ; this indeed has been clearly- 
proved by experience, when upon light soils, limed abund- 
antly or without intermediate composts, grain crops have 
been placed successively, without restoring manure to the 
soil in due proportion, or when magnesia mixed with the 
lime has exerted injurious influence upon the soil ; but, 
when the lime has been used in proper measure ; when, 
without overtasking the soil with exhausting crops, the 
latter are alternated with grasses ; when manure has been 
given back in proportion to the products obtained, the 
prudent cultivator sees a continuance of the new fecundity 
which the lime has brought without his soil showing any 
sign of exhaustion. 

Clay soils are nowhere spoken of as having to complain 
of lime, and the fecundity is sustained in light soils 
wherever the lime is used in compost and with moderation. 

In America where the lime of oyster shells has taken 
the place of magnesian lime, complaints of the exhausting 
effect of lime have ceased. 

After having presented the above article from the e Farm 
House, 5 which, with what precedes it, must satisfy any rea- 
sonable mind, of the advantages to be derived from the 
judicious use of lime, we shall close what we have to say 
on this subject with a communication taken from the 
Farmer's Cabinet, written by a scientific practical farmer, 
and which presents additional inducements for the use of 
this salt : 

Some years since I purchased a horse, but he had the 
appearance of laboring under disease ; I commenced a 
course of treatment which I had before pursued in cases 
similar to appearance, but without effect ; I was therefore 
induced to try the use of lime, as I was confident he was 
filled with botts, for he had discharged several ; I therefore 
commenced by giving him a table-spoonful of slacked lime 
three times a week in bran mashes. After pursuing this 



34 the farmer's mine. 

course near two weeks, the botts began to pass away in 
quantities, varying from ten to twenty, which he would 
expel from his intestines during the night ; in the mean- 
time his appetite began to improve, and in six weeks he 
was one of the finest geldings I ever saw. From that day 
to this I have kept up the use of lime amongst my horses 
with decided benefit ; and as an evidence of its good ef- 
fects, I have not lost a horse since I began to use it. And 
lime is a certain preventive in keeping cattle from taking 
the murrain. As an evidence of this fact, I have used it 
among my cattle three times a week, mixed with salt, for 
three or four years, and in that time I have not lost a sin- 
gle animal by this disease ; but in the mean time some of 
my neighbors have lost nearly all the cattle they owned. 
But I will give a stronger case than even the one above 
mentioned. One of my neighbors, who lost all his cattle, 
had a friend living within two hundred yards of him, who 
had several cattle which ran daily with those that died, 
and his cattle all escaped — he informed me that he made 
it an invariable rule to give his cattle salt and lime every 
morning. I have, therefore, no doubt but salt and lime 
are a sure and infallible remedy for botts in horses and 
murrain in cattle." 

And I am reminded of a circumstance by a friend, who 
has often before mentioned it ; he had two fields of pasture 
near lais house — on one of these he spread lime upon the 
turf to the amount of more than 200 bushels per acre, but 
as the other fields lay immediately below his cattle-yard, 
from whence he had formed drains to carry the water over 
its surface in the most complete manner, he determined to 
let that suffice for a dressing ; and the effects of the highly 
impregnated water from the yard was a growth of grass 
truly astonishing. Both fields were kept in pasture, and 
when the stock had eaten one of them down, they were 
removed to the other, and so changed regularly about ; 
but the effect of the different crops on the appearance of 
the stock, horses and cattle, is not to be expressed, for 
while feeding on the limed land their coats were close, 



LIME. 35 

shining and healthy, and their spirits light and cheerful, 
even when they were compelled to labor hard to obtain 
a belly-full ; but when turned into the watered grass, six 
inches or more in height, a difference for the worse could 
be perceived in 24 hours, and every day after they lost 
condition amidst the greatest abundance, with coats rough 
and staring, lax in the bowels and flaccid, with distended 
paunches, dejected countenances, and sluggish in their 
movements : they soon exhibited a depreciation in value 
to the amount of* about half their former worth. But the 
transition to health and vigor and good looks was quite 
as sudden and apparent on a return to the limed land, for 
again in 24 hours, or by the time the food had passed 
through the system, a change, particularly in their air and 
carriage, was very perceptible, My friend adds, he never 
had an instance of the murrain or botts while his stock fed 
on these pastures, but is satisfied he should have had both, 
but for the change to the limed land; for while feeding 
on the watered pastures, the stock had always the appear- 
ance of a predisposition to that state of derangement 
of the digestive system, by which he has no doubt these 
diseases are engendered. 

In conclusion, I would ask, is it not quite fair to draw 
the following deduction from what has been said, namely, 
that all dairy pastures ought to be heavily limed, it being 
the most natural thing in the world to suppose that a 
proper secretion of milk, the best and most wholesome, 
depends very much on the nature of the food with which 
the animals are fed ? and must not butter from a cow that 
is in health and spirits, be of better flavor, color and con- 
sistence, than that from one that is lax, washy and weak, 
from feeding on watery, acid, and soft herbage 1 and will 
not this account for much of the disgustingly rancid, ill- 
flavored and ill-looking butter which we so often find in 
the market 1 My friend above quoted, and who is now 
at my elbow, answers, " Yes ; for while my cows fed on 
the watered meadow, the butter was scarcely eatable — 
white, soft, and ill-flavored ; but it was sweet, firm, and 



36 the farmer's mine. 

flavored, when they were confined to the limed land.'' 
Ergo, lime your pastures, and allow your stock as much 
salt as they will consume daily, for I am convinced that 
lime and salt are a remedy for " botts in horses," as well 
as the " murrain in cattle." 



CHAPTER III 

MARL. 



• Marls, which exert so powerful an influence on 
many soils, derive most of their value from the lime 
they contain ; and with few exceptions, their power as 
fertilizers may be measured by the per centum of lime 
shown on analysis. There are some marls, however, 
which are an exception to this rule ; their value appearing 
to depend on other matters than mere lime. Of this kind 
is the celebrated green sand marl of New Jersey, and 
some other points of the Atlantic coast. In this forma- 
tion, which acts so powerfully as a manure, there is from 
6 to 10 per cent, of potash ; an agent which, on light 
soils, is scarcely equalled as a manure. In addition to 
the lime which marl contains, the influence of the propor- 
tions of sand and clay, of which the balance usually con- 
sists, must be taken into consideration in determining the 
value of this substance for particular soils. Thus, on 
heavy or clay lands, marls abounding in sand will be 
found preferable to those the base of which is clay ; and 
on light or sandy soils, the latter will be much the most 
useful, the per cent, of lime in both cases being alike. 
Marl should be spread over the surface, and pulverized by 
the action of air and frost before it is plowed under. 
When so treated, experience proves it is a most valuable 
manure, and a single dressing exerts an influence for many 
years. 



•* 



MARL. 37 

But here, as on the subject of lime, we shall draw largely 
from the ' Farm Housed 

Composition, discovery, and choice of marl. 

Mature and composition of marl. — Marl is a compound 
of carbonate of lime and clay more or less sandy ; it is 
generally found on the skirts of alluvial plains, and under 
the bed which forms them, at greater or less depth. Thus 
Sologne, upon all its banks and in most of the basins 
which furrow it ; Brosse, under its white soils ; the environs 
of Toulouse, under their hillocks ; Puisaye, beneath its 
pale earths ; and Normandy, upon its cold soils, find marl 
as if placed by some benevolent hand to give to these soils 
an activity and productiveness which nature had not im- 
parted to them. 

Marl presents itself under different aspects and varieties 
and of variable composition. It hardens in proportion to 
the carbonate of lime, till the latter amounts to 70 per 
cent, when it begins to be stony ; beyond 80 per cent, it 
ceases to be profitably employed upon the soil. Marls in 
powder, are met with, which contain a very large propor- 
tion of carbonate of lime. 

The difference of composition and change of appear- 
ance have caused the divisions of marl into clayey, sandy, 
and stony ; denominations rather vague, it is true, but still 
useful in practice. 

The discovery of marl.- — The importance of marl in 
agriculture warrants a search for it whenever it can be of 
use. Coltsfoot, ononis, sage, yellow clover, briers, thistles 
and melampyre, are ordinarily signs of marl at no great 
depth ; the digging of ditches and wells often brings it up ; 
oftener still it is found in gullies upon the declivities ; sand 
beds also indicate it, they almost always cover or sup- 
port it. 

If there are none of these signs it may be sought by 
soundings ; but deep soundings involving much expense, 
the extraction of the marl would cost too much, and we 



38 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

should often meet with water, which would prevent any 
economical improvement. However, when the water is 
not in the way, the extraction from considerable depths 
may be less expensive than its transportation from distant 
places. The extraction of marl from a great depth is not 
new in France. Pliny speaks of marl raised in Gaul 
from a depth of more than one hundred feet ; in Normandy 
it is still extracted in this manner ; the use of oxen or 
horse power much diminishes the labor in this case. 

In soil where water occurs at small depths, deep sound- 
ings are useless, a small sound suffices. It consists of a 
bar of iron of ten or twelve feet in length terminated by a 
point of steel surmounted by a spoon ; it is worked by an 
auger handle which traverses the bar, and is raised or 
lowered at pleasure and fixed by a tightening screw. 

The marl is nearer the surface in places where the soil 
appears drier or the argilo-siliceous soil is reddish rather 
than grey. When found, if not deep, it is better to 
bring it up under the open air ; in this case a few veins of 
water will not hinder the work ; the bed so far as opened 
is thrown up in one day ; in the night the hole becomes 
nearly full of water, and the next day it is cleared out or 
an opening is made on one side, leaving a dike on the side 
next to the water. 

When we have found marl, or that which appears to 
be such, for nothing more resembles the earthy marls than 
some clays, we prove its nature by touching it with nitric 
or muriatic acid, or even strong vinegar ; an effervescence 
announces marl, but if the acid spreads without swelling 
we have only clay. Again, if we throw into water a 
piece of dry marl there is at once a slight boiling, its par- 
ticles separate as if by a repulsion, and form a porridge at 
the bottom of the vessel ; this is itself one of the peculiar 
properties which it communicates to the soil in a high degree. 
These characteristics are not all found to the same extent 
in stony or clayey marls : the stony marl has often need 
of the aid of frosts upon the soil to bring it to slack. 

Soils that are suited to marl. — Marl acts by the carbon- 



MARL. 39 

ate of lime which it adds to the soil, for clay alone pro- 
duces only a mechanical effect ; the smallest quantity of 
the calcareous principle makes an impression upon soil 
which does not contain it, but in calcareous soils its use is 
oftenest injurious. The use of a few loads of marl before 
sowing in winter or spring is the best experiment to decide 
the question. 

Modes of marling in different countries. 

There are more different modes of marling than of 
liming. In most countries marlings are the result of acci- 
dent. The earth from pits, ditches or wells, has been 
thrown out upon the soil and produced unexpected fer- 
tility; if the cultivator is active and enterprising, he 
extends the operation to his other grounds, and if he 
inspires confidence in his neighbors the marling is propa- 
gated ; but then the modes are regulated by chance, and 
the doses are almost always too large, because it is 
thought that the soil cannot have too much of so good 
a thing. 

We do not find between the Enodish and French use of 
marl the same disparity as in the case of lime. What is 
most worthy of imitation in the English method is the 
association of manure with the marl ; they unite them 
often in compost ; their doses of marl are greater for the 
first than for the succeeding marlings ; the first are four or 
five lines in thickness on the surface, and the second one- 
third as much or more, and they follow at intervals of 
fifteen or twenty years. The doses vary afterwards 
according to the consistence of the soil and quality of the 
marl. In some districts they marl their pastures and mea- 
dows that are not irrigated ; marl is employed to increase 
the grasses and lime to increase the grains. Marling has 
changed the face of some whole counties : Norfolk, 
formerly covered with broom and heath, has become by 
means of marling the model province in agriculture. The 
strong marl under the name of calcareous gravel fertilizes 
large portions. In Ireland a quantity of it has been placed 



40 THE FAKMEtf's MINE. 

upon the soil sufficient to change its nature and to do away 
the necessity of repeating the operation. 

The use of marl in the Netherlands is as ancient as that 
of lime. It has there become a regular agricultural opera- 
tion, and consists of ten two-horse wagon loads to the 
acre of a very rich strong marl ; this dose is nearly equal 
to five hundred cubic feet per hectare (about two hundred 
and twenty cubic feet to the acre), covers the soil scarcely 
two-thirds of a line in thickness, and forms perhaps one- 
hundredth of the arable bed. The arrondissements of Ber- 
gue and Hazebrouck use it upon two-thirds of their surface ; 
and the other arrondissements use it less because they use 
more lime. The stony marl is taken from the neighbor- 
hood of St. Omer ; it costs from eighty cents to one dollar 
per load, because they often go more than a league to 
get it. The marling is renewed every twenty or thirty 
years ; this marling costs three times as much as liming 
upon farms exactly analogous, that is to say, from forty to 
sixty cents per acre per annum on an average, while the 
liming costs but from one and a half to two francs. 

The marlings upon the argilo-siliceous table land of 
Puisaye (Yonne) are done with a stony marl and very 
copiously; they amount to fourteen hundred cubic feet 
per acre, form a bed upon the soil of four lines in thickness 
of a marl which contains eighty per cent, of carbonate of 
lime. This abundance is explained by the fact that the marl 
slackens with difficulty, and that a winter and often even 
several years do not suffice to effect it completely. The 
marling has been practised in some parts from time imme- 
morial, so that there the doses are not more than one-third 
or one-fourth as much ; it only began to extend itself 
about forty or fifty years ago ; now the surface is nearly 
all marled, and the soil has tripled its value wherever it 
has received this amelioration. 

The marling in the vicinity of Montreuil in Picardy 
covers the soil one line in thickness nearly, with a marl of 
excellent quality, which is extracted from beneath the soil 
itself by means of pits ; this mailing, which is renewed 



MAUL* 41 

every twenty years, costs one dollar and seventy cents 
per acre. 

The marlings of Normandy and Upper Garonne would 
teach us nothing of importance ; those of Isere, on the 
other hand, may give us a useful lesson. They are made 
upon a soil of siliceous gravel with a gravelly marl which 
belongs to the sub-soil ; this soil is a part of the great allu- 
vion of reddish siliceous gravel which covers three-fourths 
of the basin of the Rhone, and which is composed of the 
rounded debris of the primitive Alps, cemented with a 
reddish earth. These marlings, originating in chance and 
made with marl close at hand, are very abundant ; they 
cover the soil with a bed of four to five lines in thickness, 
with a gravelly marl which contains from thirty to sixty 
per cent, of carbonate of lime. This quality of marl thrown 
upon a dry soil at least doubles its products ; the culti- 
vator formerly had almost without manure every two years 
a crop of rye which nearly tripled the seed ; now he reaps 
for eight or ten years after the marlings eight to one of 
wheat ; the crop, however, has diminished gradually, and 
is now, after forty years of marling, reduced to four to one ; 
those who have not seen the crops before the marling 
complain of the exhaustion of their soil, but the gross pro- 
duct is still three-fold what it was before. Moreover, we 
here find united all the circumstances which should lead 
to exhaustion ; strong doses of very rich and sandy marl 
upon a dry gravelly and loose soil ; a cultivation void of 
grass and a succession of the most exhausting crops. 
Hence it results, that upon the driest parts of this soil, which 
could not bear a tree and scarcely a shrub, the ground has 
become still drier, and with winter grains of double the 
value of the old ones, the spring grains, it is true, and 
especially the clover, have more than ever to dread from 
drought. The operation of marling, which could be 
extended with so much advantage over ten times as much 
of the same soil from Geneva to the sea, over Bugey, Val- 
bonne, the plains of Valence, the heaths of Comtal and 
the plain of Cran, is but just beginning to extend beyond 
3* 



42 THE FARMERS MINE. 

a few cantons of Isere : the successful trials in Ain and 
Drome have been but little extended. 

The marls of the great argilo-siliceous table land cover- 
ing a part of Ain, of Saone and Loire, and of Jura, are 
clayey and contain thirty or forty per cent, of carbonate of 
lime ; their efficacy was brought to light by a cultivator 
of Ain. The old practice, for forty years, of amending 
the soil with large masses of earth carted, has induced 
great abundance in the use of marl ; they began with a 
bed of fifteen or eighteen lines over the whole surface, as 
in the ordinary use of earth. This dose was afterwards 
reduced one-third, afterwards one-half, a quantity still 
enormous, since in that country, where the plowings are 
but three inches at most, the marlings form one-fourth or 
one-third of the arable bed. 

The cultivators of Saone and Loire have imitated these 
marlings without their abuse ; they give to a similar soil 
not more than one-fourth of a marl which has frequently 
not more than thirty per cent, of carbonate of lime, and 
these marlings are doubtless less durable, but they are as 
productive as those of Ain. 

The strong doses of marl have done injury in some 
places ; in a very clayey soil, the tenacity has been in- 
creased and the working rendered very difficult ; buck- 
wheat and potatoes have not succeeded so well ; and on 
light and sandy soils, without much improving the con- 
sistence, it has rendered the soil too w T arm and multiplied 
the wild poppies and rhymanthus. 

We find in Sologne a striking instance of the ameliora- 
tion of light and sandy soils by marls : the dose of clayey 
marl, similar in composition and appearance to that of 
Ain, is from seventy-five to one hundred cubic feet per 
acre, and this dose of two-fifths of a line upon the surface 
is sufficient to enrich the soil for ten years. 

Of the dose of marl to he given. 

Among so many methods we can, however, for soils of 
a medium consistence, arrive at the reasonable dose of 



MAUL. 43 

marl which will afterwards be modified according to the 
nature of the soil ; this will he a great service to practical 
agriculture, which needs precise information on this point. 

The object of marling is to bring the soil to possess the 
qualities and advantages of calcareous soils. Now, the 
analysis of the better calcareous soils, the better soils of 
the Netherlands among others ; the practice of the coun- 
tries where marling is the oldest and best understood ; the 
doses prescribed by Thaer ; the review of numerous mail- 
ings given by Arthur Young, have led us to conclude, in 
our essay on marl, that the proportion of three per cent, 
on an average of carbonate of lime in the arable bed 
ought to be sufficient ; but the marls are more or less 
rich, and the plowings by greater or less depth give more 
or less of the arable bed ; with the fixed proportion of 
carbonate of lime which we have assumed, the doses of 
marl should vary according to the richness of the marl 
and the depth of the plowing. 

To facilitate the application of this result of experience 
and reason, we give a table which contains all the ele- 
ments of marling" and of which it will be easy to make 
use; it is adapted to all the different compositions of marls 
from ten to ninety per cent, of carbonate of lime, and for 
all arable beds from three inches to eight ; by taking the 
intermediate terms we shall have for all depths of plow- 
ing and for all qualities of marl the number of cubic feet 
to be carried upon one hectare ;* the cubic feet will be 
estimated from the capacity of the carts because the marl 
in slacking upon the soil gains a bulk equal to that it 
occupied in the cart at the time of estimation. 



* The hectare is nearly equal to two and one-quarter acres. — Tkans. 



44 



THE FARMER S MINE. 





When 


one 


NUMBER OF CUBIC FEET OF MARL NECESSARY FOR 


hundred parts 


AN ARABLE BED OF A THICKNESS OF 


of marl con- 
tain in carbo- 


3 inches. 


4 inches. 


5 inches. 


6 inches. 


7 inches. 


8 inches. 


nate of lime. 


Cubic feet 


Cubic feet 


Cwbic feet 


Cubic feet 


Cubic feet 


Cubic fee; 


Parts. 




7.106 


9.474 


11.842 


14.212 


16.580 


18.948 


10 




3.553 


4.737 


5.921 


7.101 


8.290 


9.424 


20 




2.368 


3.188 


3.947 


4.737 


5.527 


6.316 


30 




1.776 


9.368 


2.860 


3.552 


4.144 


4.736 


40 




1.420 


1.880 


3.350 


2.820 


3.290 


3.720 


50 




1.178 


1.570 


1.962 


2.354 


2.748 


3.140 


60 




1.020 


1.360 


1.700 


2.040 


2.280 


2.720 


70 




.888 


1.184 


1.480 


1.776 


2.072 


2.368 


80 




.775 


1.032 


t 1.292 


1.550 


1.809 


2.027 


90 





But this average dose should be varied in many cases ; 
if the marl is clayey on a very clayey soil, the dose should 
be diminished. So especially should it in proportion as 
the soil becomes light, and we think the dose ought then 
to go as low as that in Sologne (two hundred and fifty 
cubic feet to the hectare), which we consider a reasonable 
dose and justified by experience as well as economy in 
very light soils. The proportion ought, on the other hand, 
to rise with the humidity of the soil ; on a very moist soil 
a small dose can by no means suffice ; nevertheless, care 
must be taken not to render the soil too clayey. 

Caution to be used in marling. 

The first condition for the success of marl is that the 
surface of the soil be well drained of water ; the marl 
itself without doubt aids much in drying the soil, but it is 
not sufficient to recover a marshy one ; like lime it cannot 
produce its effect upon the soil except when by nature or 
art it is relieved of superabundant water. 

The carting of the marl should be done in the right 
weather, that the land may not be cut up and clodded by 
the animals, men, and wheels ; it requires either dry wea- 
ther or frost ; however, if one has good roads, he can in 
any weather profit by the leisure of his teams ; the marl is 



MAKL. 45 

thrown upon some comer of the piece on which it can be 
spread afterwards in fit weather with carts or wheelbar- 
rows ; the exposure of the marl to the air before being 
spread is always useful, without being indispensable. 

Upon a moist soil it is best before marling to give a 
deep plowing, for then there will be a thicker bed for 
the water to penetrate, and less danger from the moisture, 
and the bed improved and mellowed by the marl will be 
thicker. 

The marl should be disposed upon the soil in parallel 
lines in small equal heaps, placed at twenty feet distance 
between the heaps and between the lines. — (See figure 45.) 
— The first opportunity of fair weather is to be improved 
to spread it as evenly as possible ; after some days and 
some alternations of sunshine and rain, the soil is to be 
passed over again to equalize the marl and make it as 
nearly as possible cover the soil with its debris ; the excel- 
lence and promptness of the results depend greatly upon 
this cause ; the marl is then left as long as possible to dry 
upon the surface ; a mutual action is established by the 
air and the atmospheric changes between the surface of 
the soil and the marl which prepares and hastens its 
effects. The marl should not be buried except in fair 
weather, when it is well slacked and almost dry ; by bury- 
ing it while wet, it recovers its adhesiveness and cannot be 
mixed with the soil ; the plowing, too, should not be 
deep, so that the marl may be distributed more equally 
through the thickness of the vegetable bed for the follow- 
ing crops. 

When the marling has been too strong, one can, by a 
deep ploughing, bring to the surface some of the unmarled 
earth, which will diminish the proportional quantity of 
the marl ; this operation, by increasing the thickness of 
the mellow bed, diminishes the disadvantages of heavy 
rains. 

Marl is advantageously employed upon winter crops as 
well as those of spring ; it is used very advantageously in 
compost, either with dung, vegetable mould, or turf; 



46 the farmer's mine. 

however, it is rather more troublesome to transport and 
mix them with the clayey than with the stony marl. The 
English use marl in this way, especially when the marl 
pit is distant, because, in the case of marl as well as 
lime, composts are a means of multiplying the effects of 
a small close. 

The effects of marl are not very apparent upon the first 
crops. Its effects upon the soil very much resemble those 
of lime. The soil becomes workable in all weathers, ab- 
sorbs the rain, becomes more accessible, as well* as the 
plants that grow on it, to all the atmospheric influences ; 
the roots traverse it more easily ; being rendered thus per- 
meable, the juices which form the sap can circulate and 
consequently be more readily taken up by the roots ; it is 
evident that these qualities improve the soil and its products. 

Of second marlings. 

Second marlings are not needed, and should be long 
deferred wherever the first has been very abundant. If 
they have not succeeded in Ain, Isere and Yonne, it is 
because doses were used in the first marlings which gave 
the soil four, five, six, eight, or ten per cent, of carbonate 
of lime, a proportion much above the need and often even 
beyond the convenience of the soil, and because the soil 
retains it for an indefinite time ; but, when marling has 
become a regular operation of agriculture, we can fix upon 
some data which will throw light upon onr course. In 
analyzing the regular methods of marling cited by Arthur 
Young, we find that the acre received per annum from 
twelve to twenty-four bushels of carbonate of lime. In 
the still more regular marlings of the department da Nord, 
the soil received every twenty years two hundred bushels 
of stony marl, which contained at least three-fourths of 
carbonate of lime ; the soil therefore requires ten bushels 
per annum to maintain its products with the same energy. 

A quantity which would suffice for clayey soils becomes 
too strong for light soils ; we have seen that they give in 
Sologne, every 10 years, from 75 to 100 cubic feet per 



MAKL. 47 

acre of a marl which contains forty per cent, of carbonate 
of lime, that is five bushels per annum of the calcareous ele- 
ment ; our second marlings ought therefore to be given in 
such a manner as to furnish the soil from five to ten bush- 
els of carbonate of lime per annum according to its consis- 
tence. 

Exhaustion of the soil hy marl. 

When a strong dose of marl has been given to a light 
or very dry soil, and animal manure has not been restored 
in proportion to the products taken off, and exhausting 
crops succeed each other, we see the harvests gradually 
diminish, and the soil assumes the character of a calcareous 
one of small fertility ; it still produces more than before the 
marling, but it is said to be exhausted, and a fresh dose of 
marl does not restore it to its first fertility ; we have seen 
this case happen in Is&re, where all the unfavorable cir- 
cumstances conspired. In a clayey soil this result would 
be manifested w T ith more difficulty and after a long 
period. Marl therefore does not dispense with manure, 
but it is far from exhausting the soil ; we think, on the 
other hand, that to sustain large products, a much smaller 
dose of manure is necessary. Marl doubles the action of 
manure, and on marled soils we have this great advan- 
tage, the power of obtaining large crops with a moderate 
quantity of manure. 

However, we must say that the first marling as well as 
the first liming produces a sort of first leap of fecundity, 
the full force of which is not often afterwards preserved. 
In order that it should be, the very first year of the marl- 
ing the dung should be applied as usual, or the 
marl should be put on in compost without with- 
holding the dung, as is done in many second 
marlings in England. But this is rarely the case ; every- 
body wishes to profit by the new power given to the soil 
of producing without dung, and places the manure on 
grounds which have not yet received amendments. How- 
ever, Belgium, the department du Nord, Normandy, 



48 THE FARMER S MINE. 

Sarthe, and a large part of England have carefully sus- 
tained the first fecundity given by the marl; and this is 
owing both to the quantity of manure, and to the good 
culture which they have bestowed upon their marled soil. 

Cultivation of the soil after marling. 
After what has been said, it will be perceived that the 
cultivation of the soil after marling should be conducted 
with discretion and prudence ; the new fecundity of the 
soil should be profited by with a due economy of those 
artificial sources which have caused it ; manure must be 
bestowed in proportion to the products, grass and root 
crops should be multiplied, and the fruitfulness of the soil 
should be exercised as much in favor of the animals that 
produce dung as of the granary ; this being done, marl is 
an immense source of fertility, present and future. We 
shall not, however, advise any abrupt changes in the rota- 
tion ; in all agricultural systems crops productive of ma- 
nure can be introduced. 

Purification produced by marl. 
It is established by facts and reasoning that lime and its 
compounds purify as well as fertilize the soil ; the calcareous 
agents remove that stagnant water which is injurious to 
vegetation ; the soil becomes porous and permeable, the 
water circulates through it and of course no longer stag- 
nates and accumulates. All waters which stand upon or 
run over marl or calcareous stone, remain clear and limpid, 
carry fruitfulness with them, and purify the soil and its 
products. Upon a marled soil all the vegetables of a 
healthy soil grow and flourish ; the soil itself is therefore 
purified as well as its waters and proclucts. Marl, in im- 
parting all the qualities of calcareous soils, gives that of 
salubrity which especially distinguishes them ; and it 
should act in this point of view more powerfully than 
lime, inasmuch as it is applied more abundantly. Marl, 
therefore, as well as lime, and all other calcareous agents, 
is a principle of salubrity as well as fertility. 



CHAPTER IV, 
gypsum- 
Gypsum is the third principal salt which exerts a pow- 
erful influence on plants, and is one of the most valuable 
of all our mineral fertilizers. It is composed of sulphuric 
acid and lime, and is called sulphate of lime ; but most 
commonly known among farmers as plaster. It is found 
in a great variety of forms ; sometimes in regular crys* 
tals, or in large crystalline plates and masses, which are 
perfectly transparent, and as pure as the finest plate-glass. 
It is sometimes found in snow T -white flakes like foam or 
snow, sometimes semi-transparent like horn ; and lastly, it 
is met with most commonly in large, compact masses, 
forming rocks, and constituting large and extensive strata. 
In this form, it exhibits a great variety of colors — white, 
red, brown, and blueish white. It is used to some extent 
in the arts, but the most important use of gypsum is for 
fertilizing the soil. 

Much variety of opinion has been entertained respect- 
ing the manner in which it exerts its influence or pro- 
duces its effects on plants ; and these opinions can scarcely 
be said to be harmonized, even at the present time. Davy 
was inclined to consider it a direct food for the plant, as it 
is found, to some extent, in those plants on which it exerts 
the most power. Chaptal referred its power to its stimu- 
lating agency on plants, produced by its action when dis- 
solved in water. Liebig ascribes its value to its giving 
a fixed condition to the nitrogen or ammonia which is 
brought into the soil, and which is indispensable for the 
nutrition of plants. Dana, to the action of the lime and 
acid of which the gypsum is composed, on the organic 



50 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

matter and silicates of the soil. He says—" It seems 
almost incredible that so minute a portion of a mineral can 
act at all ; yet how beautifully is the result explained by the 
principle that plants decompose first this salt ; the lime, 
for plaster is a sulphate of lime, then acts on geine, which 
is thus rendered soluble ; while the acid, the oil of vitriol 
or sulphuric acid, immediately acts on silicates." It seems 
very probable that no single one of these suppositions 
will be found able to account in full for the action of plas- 
ter. That of Dr. Dana appears to approach as nearly to 
a solution as any of them, if we extend his term silicates 
so as to embrace those combinations formed by the union 
of the acid of gypsum with ammonia, after its separation 
from the lime. If the action of plaster was due to its 
fixing ammonia alone, then it ought to be equally efficient 
at all times and places, which it certainly is not ; or if it 
acted directly as nutriment, then its action would be as 
constant as that of rotted manure or compost, which farm- 
ers well know is not the case. Plaster does not act as 
usefully in the vicinity of the sea, as in the interior ; and 
on heavy wet soils is scarcely felt at all. Light sandy 
soils, or loamy ones, are those on which plaster acts the 
most sensibly ; and clover, lucerne, potatoes, cabbages, 
and the leguminous plants, such as peas, vetches, &c, are 
the vegetables on which it exerts the most powerful influ- 
ence. It is much valued as a dressing for wheat, not so 
much, perhaps, for its direct action on that plant, although 
that is not trifling, as for its effect in securing and promot- 
ing the growth of the clover and other grass seeds, usually, 
in wheat countries, sown with this crop. So marked is 
the influence it exerts in this respect, that plaster, clover 
and wheat, are always associated in the mind of the most 
successful wheat growers ; and its use is the most exten- 
sive in the best wheat growing districts of our country. 

When the soil and season are favorable, plaster often 
doubles the product of forage crops ; the plants then take 
an intense green and an extraordinary vigor, which makes 
them contrast strongly with the portions not plastered. 



GYPSUM. 51 

When Franklin wished to introduce the use of plaster 
into America, to convince his countrymen he wrote upon 
a field of clover in Washington, with powdered plaster, 
the following phrase — " This has been plastered ;" the 
effect of the plaster brought these words up in relief in 
greener and more vigorous stalks ; everybody was con- 
vinced, and plaster was rendered popular in America. 

It is recommended to sow the plaster in spring upon 
the vegetation already commenced, when the grass is five 
or six inches in height. However, when sown in the 
month of August, after harvest, upon clover of the year, 
it makes it produce a good cutting in the month of Octo- 
ber, and the crops of the succeeding year still experience 
the whole of the good effect. 

It is spread by the hand, in the evening or morning upon 
the dew, or in calm and cloudy weather before or after a 
slight rain ; heavy rains much injure the effect ; thus, to 
avoid the heavy rains of the spring, in the neighborhood 
of Marseilles, they prefer to use plaster only after the first 
cutting. 

The experiments of M. Soquet seemed to have proved 
that plaster spread upon the soil without contact with the 
plants produced no effect ; still the practice of the whole 
country establishes the fact that it succeeds very well upon 
clover and lucern when they are scarcely out of the 
ground ; and the experiments of Messrs. Sageret and 
D'Harcourt have proved that plaster sown at the same 
time with the seed still produced a great effect. 

Its ordinary dose is equal in bulk to the seed, or two or 
three hundred weight to the acre ; at this dose it makes 
upon the soil a layer of less than iJ of a line, or 6 oeo of an 
arable bed of five inches in thickness ; at a dose one-half 
less its effect is still very sensible ; of all amendments its 
effects are produced with the smallest dose. 

Plastering ought not to be too often repeated upon the 
same soil, especially if it is moderately rich ; the soil loves 
to change its manure as well as its crops ; and plaster, 
like many other good things, requires to be used with 
measure and moderation. 



52 the farmer's SUNS* 

Plaster used in compost of earth or dung very much 
increases their activity ; the trials upon this subject have 
not been pushed far enough to result in practical rules ; 
this is much to be regretted, for the experiments made 
promised the happiest results. 

The plaster while producing upon the leaves and 
branches of plants an increased growth, produces also a 
very sensible effect upon the roots. The experiments of 
M. Soquet have proved that the roots of plastered clover 
weigh one-third more than the roots of clover not plas- 
tered. It appears thence that longer, stronger, and more 
branchy roots should draw more from the soil. However, 
the wheat which follows plastered clover is ordinarily 
better than that which succeeds clover not plastered ; this 
must be attributed to the greater amount of vegetable 
manure, the more vigorous clover which has left more 
leaves upon the surface and more roots in the soil ; but 
this vegetable manure lasts but one year, for the hoed crop 
which succeeds the wheat must receive more manure after 
plastered clover than after that which had not been so. 

Plaster is sometimes used upon dry meadows, and increases 
their yield ; it makes the leguminous grasses predominate, 
and consequently improves the forage ; but its use must 
be alternated with animal manures, otherwise the fertility 
which it produces is not sustained, and in a few years of 
repeated plasterings the product would descend lower than 
before. 

The distinctive character of the legumes is increased by 
plastering ; their leaves, which are their organs of absorp- 
tion from the atmosphere, become more vigorous and are 
doubled or perhaps tripled in surface and consequently in 
power, while the roots have increased only one-third, and 
consequently, so to speak, borrowed but one-third more 
from the soil ; this want, however, must be supplied in 
moderate soils, where it becomes sensible. 

Plastering is therefore an excellent method, but to be 
used with reserve and circumspection ; for this reason in 
some countries the doses of plaster have been reduced, in 



ASHES. 53 

others they have been divided to good purpose between 
two seasons, one half after the harvesting of the grain 
which covered the forage, and the other half in the suc- 
ceeding spring. 



CHAPTER V. 



ASHES. 



Ashes, leached or otherwise, are of great value as a fer- 
tilizer, especially when used on soils that are sandy or 
light Unleached, the potash contained goes to form sili- 
cate of potash, and gives the supply of silex necessary for 
the stems of the grasses or corn ; and leached, although 
the potash is the greater part of it separated, the remaining 
phosphates of lime and magnesia go far to restoring to the 
fields on which such ashes are strewn, the necessary mat- 
ters of which previous cropping has deprived them. 100 
parts of the ashes of the wheat grain contain 32 parts of 
soluble, and 44 parts of insoluble phosphates, in all 76 
parts. The value of ashes abounding in the required 
phosphates, when used on grain lands, may be seen at 
once, as well as the folly of those farmers who waste or 
sell the ashes produced in their dwellings. 

They require to be spread when dry, in weather that is 
not rainy, and upon ground that is not wet ; they favor 
the vegetation of all crops, both winter and spring, either 
of grains or legumes. 

They give a deep green color to the vegetables which 
they nourish ; they favor the production of the seed even 
more than that of the straw ; the seed produced resembles 
that of limed land ; it is perhaps even finer and thinner 
skinned, and like that commands a better price in the mar- 
ket. Ashes are used with great advantage upon meadows 
and pastures, and their effects are especially remarkable 



54 the farmer's mine. 

upon buckwheat, rape, and hemp. The effect of a small 
dose is not very durable ; at the end of two years it is 
scarcely perceptible, yet in groimds which have been 
repeatedly ashed, ten years after the practice has ceased 
the amelioration is perceptible. 

The use of ashes is very common upon the great argilo- 
siliceous table land which belongs to' the basins of the 
Rhone and the Saone, and which extends from the gates 
of Lyons to the departments of Ain, Saone and Loire, 
Jura, and Upper Saone. 

Lyons, after having furnished leached ashes to the agri- 
culture of its vicinity, which employs them in great abun- 
dance, sends them by its rivers to a great portion of their 
banks and the neighboring countries, which pay for them 
1 1-2 to 3 francs per hectolitre (from 10 to 20 cents per 
bushel). The usual dose is not so large as in the neigh- 
borhood of Lyons, yet it is from 60 to 80 bushels per acre. 
It is sown upon the ground before the last plowing ; the 
earth and the ashes should be dry ; and they are left upon 
the surface of the soil twenty-four hours, if the weather is 
favorable ; the seed is then thrown on and the whole 
covered by a light plowing. They are also very often 
used for the seeding of buckwheat upon fallow in the 
month of June, and insure a crop of that as well as of the 
wheat or rye which succeed. The effect of ashes is but 
slightly perceptible after two years ; they are then alter- 
nated with dung, because they are more profitable to the 
soil if used only once in four years. In the neighborhood 
of Lyons they are used with much advantage upon some 
meadows, to the amount of fifty bushels to the acre ; their 
effect also is very durable ; the doses upon plowed lands 
are also very strong, and seem rather to be regulated by 
the low price of the material, which on the spot is from 
seven to ten cents per bushel, than by the necessities of 
the soil. 

In Sarthe they are very dear and much valued ; they are 
used along with lime, to which they are preferred for light 
soils ; the dose is twelve bushels to the acre, and the effect 



ASHKS. 55 

is great upon buckwheat and the wheat which succeeds 
it. 

In Indre they are used, especially for rape, at the rate 
of twenty bushels to the acre ; and with no other manure 
they gather from twenty to thirty bushels of seed. 

Ashes are generally used alone without dung ; still, in 
the country where their value and use are best known, it 
is believed that as in the case of marl and lime, the mix- 
ture with dung doubles the activity of both substances, and 
very much increases the natural fecundity of the soil. In 
a commune in the vicinity Louhans (Saone and Loire) 
ashes are eagerly sought for, for wheat ; they join to half 
the ordinary dose of dung from eight to ten bushels of 
ashes to the acre, and this half dose of each produces more 
than the full dose of either by itself. In the commune of 
St. Etienne, near Bonry, the use of dung is added to that 
of ashes ; the dung gives the advantage of keeping a cold 
and compact soil somewhat mellow and more accessible to 
the atmospheric agents. 

On moist soils the dose should be increased in proportion 
to the moisture ; but if the water is stagnant they produce 
no effect till there has been a thorough draining ; hence 
we see the effect must be small in wet seasons upon such 
soils. 

Ashes, as we have said, are employed in all the seasons 
except winter. Early in spring they are used upon mea- 
dows and pastures; afterwards with the seed of barley, 
oats, and maize ; in the course of the summer they enrich 
rape and buckwheat ; and finally, in autumn they are used 
with the seed of wheat and rye. 

The ashes are covered with a light plowing, or are 
strewn without being covered upon crops in vegetation. 
Thrown in spring upon wheat and barley, they improve 
the crop sensibly, yet this practice is quite rare. Some 
experiments upon the same crop in the same soil, of ashes 
covered at sowing and spread upon the surface on the 
plants in vegetation, have given me a better yield in the 
soil than on the surface, showing that the practice of 
covering is preferable. 



56 the farmer's mine. 

Practice also prefers leached to quick ashes ; reasoning 
does not bear this out, but in agriculture more than else- 
where " experientia rericm magistra" — (Experience is 
mistress). I have convinced myself of this by comparative 
trials. We shall not conclude, nevertheless, that this re- 
sult must always take place ; upon a soil which would be 
enriched by saline substances, I think that quick ashes 
would produce more effect ; but upon those for which the 
phosphate of lime is sufficient, we see that leached ashes 
which have lost their soluble parts, contain more of it, and 
consequently produce more effect with the same bulk. 

Ashes of peat and. coal. 
These ashes are considered in Holland, in the depart- 
ment du Nord, and Belgium, as one of the great agents of 
vegetation. The ashes of peat are to be distinguished from 
those of coal. 

Holland ashes. 

We give the name of Holland ashes particularly to ma- 
rine ashes, or the ashes of our domestic peat ; the former 
are much more valuable than the latter ; it requires four 
times less of them to produce the same effect : they are 
produced by the combustion of the peat of Holland. This 
peat, which has been formed, or at least has remained a 
long time beneath the waters of the sea, is a better com- 
bustible, and especially gives white ashes of a better 
quality ; these ashes undoubtedly contain a greater pro- 
portion of saline and calcareous elements. 

They are used, as well as the ashes of peat and coal, 
upon artificial meadows, upon flax, upon spring grain, and 
upon meadows that are not watered. They have become 
indispensable to agriculture in the arrondissement of Lille, 
where the calcareous amendments are but little used ; in 
the other arrondissements, and particularly in that of 
Avesnes, they are often mixed with lime from one-half to 
one-fourth of the whole bulk. 

Composts of ashes and lime are particularly useful on 
meadows and spring grains, at the same dose as of pure 



ASHES. 57 

lime, that is to say 50 bushels to the acre for every ten or 
twelve years. 

Marine ashes are much esteemed for the clovers, from 
six to twelve bushels per acre are used, and the clover 
gives a superb crop, and the wheat which succeeds par- 
takes of the fruitfulness of the forage. 

The high price at which the Flemish were obliged to 
buy the marine ashes caused them to discover an amend- 
ment not so dear ; they get from Picardy and their own 
soil a mineral which they call black or red ashes, which 
takes the place of the marine ashes sold at too dear a rate 
by their neighbors the Dutch ; we shall speak of it in the 
following section. 

Coal ashes. 
They are used in default of all the resources which pre- 
cede ; still they are quite active, and compose in part the 
street mud which is bought at a dear rate in all the cities 
and large towns. We have to regret that this material 
should be generally wasted in France : those who collect 
the mud of Lyons accumulate large quantities of them, 
and experience their good effects almost without knowing 
to what they are due. 

Peat ashes in general. 

They are used in Picardy in great abundance ; the val- 
leys of the Somme and its branches contain great quanti- 
ties of peat which are very profitably improved for the 
manufacture of bricks, tiles, and for domestic fires ; besides 
which, a large quantity is burned to get the manure. Peat 
ashes are there used for meadows, both natural and artifi- 
cial, and for fall grains ; fifty bushels are applied to the 
acre. Their price is rather high, that is to say, three 
cents per bushel taken upon the spot. 

In England they also make much use of them, but their 

rules and doses vary with each district. The composition 

of these ashes is so variable, that precise directions can 

scarcely be given ; still we can say they should be spread 

4 



58 the farmer's mine. 

dry upon soils that have been well drained. They are 
used either as a top-dressing or to be plowed in ; the dose 
should be double in the latter case ; united with dung 
they make an excellent compost. 

Twelve loads of peat furnish upon an average one load 
of ashes. 

To burn peat in Germany, they have a sort of gridiron, 
under which wood is placed ; upon the gridiron they place 
peat, and on the top of that some that is wet ; the combus- 
tion is managed so as to make it last as long as possible, 
because experience has shown that the ashes are better 
when the peat is burned slowly. 

Still we must say that it is much to be regretted that a 
fuel fit for so many uses should spend its heat for nothing, 
while everywhere the brickmakers, lime-burners, potters, 
and kitchen fires, pay dearly for their fuel. " Happy the 
country which burns its mother !" This proverb, born in 
a country which has been enriched by the use of peat, 
should be a strong lesson to those districts of France 
where it is found in abundance, and such districts are 
numerous. Wherever peat is found, therefore, easy of 
access, without being used either in agriculture or the arts, 
a treasure is left buried which might give prosperity and 
riches to the country. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SALT. 

Of marine salt, or hydro-chlorate of soda. 

The great question here is of sea salt ; the other salts 
are only of secondary importance. Sea salt is one of the 
substances which can be furnished by commerce at the 
lowest price, when the impost which falls upon this article of 
prime necessity shall have been abolished. On the sea- 
shore and in the mines of rock salt the hundred weight 



SALT. 59 

would cost but ten cents. The mines which furnish it, of 
which the veins appear to be of indefinite thickness, seem 
almost inexhaustible ; if, therefore, salt can be of great 
utility in agriculture, with the new improvements in com- 
munication in France, there ought to be more than half 
the surface of our country where the price of salt should 
be scarcely one franc (nineteen cents) per hundred 
weight ; and, as its effects upon the soil are produced by 
small doses, and nevertheless appear very great, the results 
should be of great importance. 

Let us look upon the facts which prove its great influ- 
ence upon the fertility of the soil. The use of salt in 
agriculture is very ancient : the Hindoos and Chinese, 
from the remotest antiquity, have fertilized their fields and 
gardens with it. The Assyrians, Pliny tells us, spread it at 
some distance around the stems of their palm trees. How- 
ever, it is known that in a considerable quantity it sterilizes 
the soil ; thus the Bible informs us that Abimelech, hav- 
ing taken Shechem, destroyed that city from its founda- 
tions and sowed with salt the place which it occupied. 

In modern times the English have studied this question 
much more than we. Lord Bacon proved by his experi- 
ments that the use of salt water was profitable in agricul- 
ture. More recently, Brownrigg, Watson, and Cart- 
wright, have confirmed by experiment the efficacy of salt 
upon vegetation. The Agricultural Societies have offered 
a prize, and Davy, Sinclair, Johnson, and Daore, have 
verified and advised the use of it. In the county of Corn- 
wall, composts of the impure salt of the salt works with 
sea sand, earth, mould, or the remains of fish, are fre- 
quently employed, and the farmers of Cheshire, we are 
told by Davy, attribute to them the abundance of their 
harvests. In the Isle of Man, salt is used to destroy moss 
in meadows. The usual composition of composts for 
meadows is eight loads of earth and seventeen bushels of 
salt per acre. 

In many of the cider-making districts the apple trees 
are rendered more robust and fruitful by burying around 



60 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

and at some distance from the trunk a small dose of sea 
salt. The scions and slips which are sent to a distance, 
being wet in salt water, sprout more easily on their arrival. 

The British government, at the request of the agricul- 
turaHnterest, orders the salt which is required for the soil 
to be mixed with soot and sold at a lower price. In Ger- 
many, where there is but little sea coast, and where salt 
is scarcer and dearer, this question has been less consider- 
ed ; in Bavaria, however, the king has ordered all the salt 
used in agriculture, either for cattle, or for the soil, to be 
sold at a low price. 

In France a multitude of facts confirm the efficacy of 
salt as an amendment upon certain soils. The great 
fecundity produced by sea manure is often due to the salts 
which it contains ; and this is still more evident in regard 
to the ashes of Pornic, into the composition of which are 
put the scrapings of the salt heaps, and which are care- 
fully watered during the whole summer with salt water. 
The practice of Morbihan to water the dung with sea 
water has doubtless been established upon the proof given 
by experience of the efficacy of salt united with dung. 
Finally, the great effect of sea weeds and their ashes, 
which contain perhaps half their weight of muriate of 
soda, or soda, must be taken as additional proof. In some 
districts of the coast soda (salsoda soda) is sowed at the 
same time with the wheat, upon the salt lands formed by 
deposits from the water of the sea. When the rains come 
to diminish the quantity of the salt, the wheat grows 
beautifully, and the soda remains feeble. When the rains 
are scanty the soda flourishes at the expense of the wheat. 

When the salt is not very abundant, it favors vegeta- 
tion and gives products of an excellent quality. The salt 
meadows are esteemed for the quantity and quality of their 
forage, and the manure of their sheep. I have lived in 
Picardy near the pastures that are often covered by the 
high tides : when the rains come to wash the surface and 
carry off the too great portion of salt, they furnish pastur- 
age in abundance, and of excellent quality. 



SALT. 



61 



Experiments upon the action of salt upon vegetation.' 
No treatise better demonstrates this action, nor better 
defines the doses and the attending circumstances of the 
application, than the experiments of M. Lecoq of Cler- 
mont. He has taken a great step in the question, both 
general and particular, of the use of the different saline 
substances offered to agriculture by nature and art. We 
shall proceed to give the results of his experiments, con- 
fining ourselves, however, to the facts and instructions 
which most interest the practical cultivator. 

On a field of barley, upon good free soil, dunged the 
preceding year, he divided a space of thirty-two rods into 
eight equal portions j upon the six first he spread, on the 
last of April, progressive doses of salt, and upon Nos. 
seven and eight he put nothing. 

Table of operations and results. 



Numbers. 


Doses of salt. 




Products in grain 




lbs. lbs. 


1 


li . . . 30 


2 


3 






29£ 


3 


5 






33 


4 


6 






41 


5 


9 






35 


6 


12 






48 


7 


00 






28 


8 


00 






31 



Number one, which received but one pound and a half, 
differed but little from those which received none ; number 
two had the straw longer and the barley more tufted ; 
number three became still better ; number four, vegetation 
very vigorous, the straw ten inches longer than that 
which was not salted, and four inches longer than that 
which was salted less or more. The ears besides were 
larger, longer, and better filled than the others. Number 
five, inferior to number four, resembling number two, but 
higher than that ; number six, the strongest dose, seemed 
diseased, notwithstanding its product in grain was quite 



62 



THE FARMER S MINE. 



large ; its straw was not longer than that of the numbers 
not salted 

It results from this that the most productive dose for 
barley should be one and a half pound to the rod or two 
hundred and forty pounds to the acre. The four rods 
which received six pounds produced more than numbers 
seven and eight, which received none, — eleven pounds of 
grain or four hundred and forty pounds to the acre, or 
more than three and a half times the seed, which is on an 
average less than 100 pounds to the acre. 

This experiment with the same data was made at the 
same time upon a field of wheat, upon a soil rather thin, 
light, and high. The results were found nearly the same, 
notwithstanding the difference of soil, position, and crops ; 
still there was little difference between numbers three and 
four, of which the former received four and a half pounds 
to the four rods, and the latter six pounds. 

The suitable dose for wheat should, therefore, be below 
one and a half pounds to the rod, or two hundred and 
forty pounds to the acre. 

Upon a field of lucern divided in the same manner and 
with the same doses upon the same surface, the following 
results were obtained : 

Dry Lucern. 
lbs. 
87 
131 
102 
75 
62 
48 
85 
85 

We see that the effect, scarcely sensible in number one, 
which received but one and a half pounds of salt, rises to 
its maximum in number two, which had received three 
pounds of it, and then goes on diminishing to number six 
which received 12 pounds, the crop of which was reduced 
to forty-eight pounds or a little more than one-third of 



Numbers. 

1 

2 


Doses of salt 

lbs. 

u 

3 


3 


5 


4 


6 


5 


9 


6 


. 12 


7 


. 00 


8 


. 00 



SALT. 63 

number two. At the second cutting the result was nearly 
the same, although the rains had washed the numbers 
where the salt was in excess, and they had somewhat 
increased in product. 

The most suitable dose for leguminous forage would, 
therefore, seem to be three pounds to four rods, or one 
hundred and twenty pounds to the acre, or one half that 
which suits ground sown in bread stuffs. 

The proportion most productive for potatoes should be 
as for grain one and a half pounds per rod ; that is the 
dose at any rate which gave the most vigor to the stalks. 

For flax five pounds to the four rods, or two hundred 
pounds to the acre, appeared to be the best dose. How- 
ever, the product in seed is not greater than of flax^not salt- 
ed. A dose of eight pounds gave a product sensibly less 
than one of five pounds. 

In the use of salt, as of lime, except in strong doses, it 
produces little effect upon a damp soil ; one and a half 
pounds to the rod spread upon cold meadows and upon 
dry, doubled the product of the latter, while it only 
changed the color of the former. Upon oats on damp 
soil the effect was scarcely perceptible, while upon dry soil 
the vigor was much increased. Finally, some lots taken 
upon a damp peaty soil received six, twelve, and twenty- 
four pounds of salt to the four rods ; the two first numbers 
had the advantage over the parts not salted, and the two 
last produced much more than the others. 

One hundred and thirty pounds of salt upon leguminous 
forage produced the same effect upon the acre as two 
thousand and two hundred pounds of plaster, whence it 
results that sea salt can be substituted for plaster in coun- 
tries w T here the latter is scarce and dear. But what is 
especially remarkable, as in the case of calcareous ma- 
nures, is the improvement of the quality of the hay upon 
moist meadows; the cattle consumed it with as much 
pleasure as they did with little before the experiment. 

The general effect of salt upon crops of all sorts is doubt- 
less to increase their taste, and to render them more agree- 



64 the farmer's mine. 

able, and probably more nourishing to cattle. We think 
the same is true of products destined for men. It is pro- 
bable also that the products which best suit the instincts 
and appetites of animals, also give their flesh the best 
quality and savor, which would also seem to be proved by 
the high value which the gourmands attach to the mutton 
of the salt pastures. The general effect of salt upon crops 
is to increase all the products but the leaves in a greater 
proportion than the rest. Hence the dose for grass crops 
is but half that for grains. 

Saline manures succeed almost as well in powder as in 
solution ; as the former mode is much more convenient it 
is consequently preferable, and the more so because in 
using salt in solution, that it may not be injurious and may 
cover the w T hole extent, it is necessary to use it dissolved 
in a great deal of water. 

Of the hydro-chlorate or muriate of lime. (Chloride of 

calcium). 

The effects of muriate of lime upon vegetation have 
hitherto been much disputed ; it would be quite important, 
however, that its favorable action upon the soil should be 
established, because it is presented in large quantities as the 
residuum of certain chemical manufactures. In the experi- 
ments of M. Lecoq, its effects have been almost equal to 
those of muriate of soda ; however, it seemed less energetic 
upon lucerns, and its most fertilizing dose, instead of being 
three pounds to the four rods as for common salt, was from 
three to six. 

Its use is more troublesome than that of marine salt, on 
account of its deliquescence ; it is for the same reason more 
difficult of transportation and cannot be spread in powder. 

We are here confined to experiments on a small scale ; 
but those of M. Dubuc, of Rouen, are very favorable to it. 
He thinks that leached ashes, charcoal, sawdust of wood, 
or plaster, should serve as the medium for spreading it, 
and that twenty-four pounds would be sufficient for the 
amendment of one acre. 



SALT. 65 

Its effect was great upon maize, potatoes, trees, and 
shrubs of different sorts. He thinks that it would suit 
hemp, flax, and the oleaginous seeds. It doubled the size 
of onions and poppies to which he applied it. 

Of the sulphate of soda. 
The sulphate of soda was employed upon a meadow 
and a field sown in wheat, at the dose of three, six, and 
twelve pounds. 



ibers. 




Doses. 


Wheat. 


Dry Lucern. 


1 


. 


. 3 


25 . 


. 137 


2 




. 6 


34 . 


. 156 


3 


. 


. 12 


0Z2 • 


. 187 


4 


• 


. 00 . 


26 . 


. 99 



From this it appears that for fields the most suitable 
dose would be six pounds for four rods, rather above than 
below, however ; and that upon meadows, the advanta- 
geous effect would increase up to twelve pounds, and per- 
haps beyond. This salt can be procured at a low price 
in the manufactories of soda. 

Of the nitrate of potash, or saltpetre. 

Its success upon the soil, disputed by some, has been 
very great in numerous experiments made in England. 
Trials comparing it with sea salt appear to have given it 
the advantage. In England the price of saltpetre which 
is brought from India, is so low that it can even be used 
in agriculture with advantage. 

The most useful dose of saltpetre is nearly the same as 
that of sea salt ; it varies from one hundred and twenty 
to two hundred and forty pounds per acre. It has been 
used with success upon the different bread stuffs ; still, its 
most remarkable effect is upon natural meadows and upon 
clovers. 

Curling mixed it advantageously with ashes by which 
he was able to diminish the dose. Mr. John Lee, who 
4* 



66 the farmer's mine. 

used it for fifteen years, thinks that it causes the produc- 
tion of more straw than grain in proportion, and that its 
effect is prolonged to the second crop ; but other cultiva- 
tors do not entertain this opinion. There is little agree- 
ment as to the nature of the soils to which saltpetre is best 
suited; its action has been advantageous upon a great 
many varieties, but it seems to have been most satisfactory 
upon calcareous soils. 

General remarks. 

M. Lecoq has moreover fixed many circumstances in 
regard to the use of saline substances. For example, he 
spread them in powder in the spring upon the plants in 
vegetation. A part of the soil sown in wheat, upon 
which in the month of October he spread a dose of salt, 
was less productive than another contiguous lot salted in 
the month of March. 

The most favorable time for giving salt to potatoes 
should be that which just precedes the hilling ; it should 
doubtless be the same with Indian corn ; in this case it is 
upon the soil and not upon the plants in vegetation that 
the salt is spread. 

The effect produced by saline substances is immediate, 
but it is not very perceptible on moist soils and is of short 
duration. They act in small doses. In all these circum- 
stances they have the closest similarity to plaster. These 
substances, therefore, act as stimulants, and there is no 
reason to fear that they will exhaust the soil, provided a 
quantity of dung proportioned to the product is joined 
with them, as is done in the case of sea manure. 

After all the developments just given, we have reason 
to conclude that saline substances powerfully aid vegeta- 
tion ; but unfortunately their effect is not uniform, it is 
not general, and it is produced- only upon certain soils. 
Since the Memoir of M. Lecoq, M. de Dombasle has tried 
salt upon his soil ; but, like lime, it did not succeed with 
him. We have ourselves made numerous experiments on 
this subject. Last spring we used the doses that were 



SALT. 67 

most productive with M. Lecoq, with two varieties of salt* 
the ordinary salt of commerce and the salt of pickled fish* 
The latter variety was cheaper, and we thought it ought 
to act with more energy from the animal particles which 
it contained. This salt spread upon four portions of mea- 
dow of various position and soil, produced no sensible 
effect : employed upon portions of a wheat field, on gra- 
velly, argilo-siliceous, and calcareous soils, the effect was 
the same * buried in the first dressing of potatoes and the 
hilling of corn, it gave no result * it only seemed to excite 
a little the vigor of winter vetches. 

Sea manure, sand, sea mud o?- slime, ashes of sea-weed. 

All these different amendments which the sea offers to 
the people on its coasts, are both calcareous and saline. 
Their effect is great, but is not produced upon all descrip- 
tions of soil. These stimulating amendments do not act, 
in our opinion, upon soils made by the sea, nor upon those 
which owe to it their formation in modern times, but prin- 
cipally upon argilo-siliceous soils. 

When sea manure is sandy it is also active, but not so 
profitable as when it is slimy and contains animal and 
vegetable substances in decomposition. In this last case 
it is a sort of compost of calcareous sand, shells, marine 
plants, and salt. It is then one of the most fertilizing 
manures known in agriculture. 

Sea manure is used in England as well as France. By 
this name is denoted in many districts the fucus as well 
as other marine plants. This is not the place to treat of 
this vegetable manure, but the mud of the sea is almost as 
often used as the marine plants ; its use, however, cannot 
extend so far inland, because it costs more for transporta- 
tion. A better state of the roads would much facilitate 
and extend the use of this powerful means of amelioration, 
and so much the more because in the interior the quantity 
of soil which is adapted to it is relatively much greater. 

In England it is much esteemed for top-dressing for 
winter grains and spring grass • it is remarked that the 



68 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

wheat, oats and barley to which this amendment has been 
given are less subject to rust. In Cheshire the sea mud 
which is taken from the salt marshes is considered the best 
of all manures ; it is found to have the activity of marl 
and the richness of dung. Composts are usually made of 
it with dung, which are mixed over from time to time in 
order to be used at the moment of sowing the wheat. 

This amendment is much sought for on the coast of 
Avranches, in Manche, where, it is preferred to lime or 
marl. With compost made with five or six wagon-loads 
of sea mud to the acre, which is mixed with one-quarter 
more of dung, or a proportionate quantity of loam, an 
excellent manure is formed which produces its effect at 
least during one whole course of the rotation. In all this 
country the use of lime is very common ; but the moment 
you approach sufficiently near the sea, and the roads per- 
mit the transportation of the sea mud, lime is no longer 
used. 

In Brittany the use of sea sand has also been general 
for thirty years past, on the coast of Saint Brieuc and Ma- 
tignon. It used to be unknown except at Hilion, where 
it has been established for fifty years ; but for some time 
past the whole canton of Matignon, following the exam- 
ple of M. Desmoland, has used it with great profit, and its 
use would be much more extensive but for the state of the 
roads ; sea sand is adapted to the cultivation of clover, 
lucern, flax, hemp, and potatoes ; upon the meadows it 
destroys the rush, increases the quantity and improves the 
quality of the grass, and finally is well adapted to clay 
soils which it mellows and renders more penetrable by the 
water. 

The mud taken from the mouths of creeks and rivers is 
preferred, because there it contains more remains both 
marine and fluviatile, which have been brought there from 
land and sea by the ebb and flow ; elsewhere the sand 
contains little but its earthly elements, the remains of shells 
and marine soil. 

In countries where the fucus {sea-weed) does not suit 



SALT. 69 

the soil, or is collected beyond the demand for it, it is 
burned for its ashes. These can then be sold as contain- 
ing a little soda of a bad quality ; but they are more profit- 
able as a manure. Some trials of them have been made 
in Scotland, and have succeeded very well for all sorts of 
crops. Five hundred weight (250 kilog.) of kelp (the 
name of sea-weed ashes) to the Scotch acre have given a 
great increase of product. They have been used for a 
long time in Brittany, and their use within a few years 
past has been much extended. 

On the island of Noirmoutier and some parts of the 
neighboring coast, they burn the sea-weed of which they 
make no use, mix it with earth, sand, the scrapings beneath 
heaps of salt, fresh sea weed, stable dung, shells, and all 
sorts of vegetable and animal remains; from time to time 
during the year they wet the heap with salt water ; they 
work it over at five or six different times, and then the 
mixture resembles ashes. Not many years ago, five or six 
small vessels were sufficient to convey this manure to the 
places where it is used ; in 1832 there were discharged at 
Pornic 1236 cargoes almost entirely of ashes, each cargo 
containing ten cartloads of twenty-seven and a half bushels 
each. 

One hundred and twenty bushels of these ashes are 
used to the acre. They are applied to all crops, but par- 
ticularly to buckwheat and summer legumes, as well as to 
high grass. They are spread at the time of sowing. By 
mixing them with a small quantity of dung we should 
diminish by one-third the quantity necessary, and should 
have a manure as profitable at least. 

Amelioration by sea manure ought not to be confined to 
places near the seashore : the country roads are too bad to 
permit its easy transportation to a distance ; but the navi- 
gation of rivers and even creeks at their mouths, by means 
of the tide, permits the conveying of it at a sufficiently 
small expense a long distance inland. The quantity- 
necessary to the acre, eighty or one hundred cubic feet or 
more, is comparatively large ; the duration of its effec 



70 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

upon the soil is prolonged, therefore, far beyond that of 
the dang with which it is mixed ; the ebb and flow of the 
sea much facilitates the operation ; the loading is effected 
at low tide upon the uncovered mud, and the high tide 
wafts away the vessel and its cargo. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SALT AND LIME MIXED. 

Salt and lime, artificially mixed as a manure, promise 
to be a valuable aid to the farmer in those positions where 
the soil abounds with insoluble silicates or geine, and 
where other manures necessary to produce decomposition 
or fermentation are not at hand. Prof. Johnston recom- 
mends a mixture of two parts of lime and one part of salt, 
the mixture to remain incorporated in a shady place, or 
covered with sods two or three months before using. Salt 
and lime should not be used immediately after mixing, as 
bad results are apt to ensue ; but after being well mixed 
in a dry state and lying as directed, it may be applied at 
the rate of from thirty to sixty bushels per acre, either 
before or at the time of sowing. Mixed w T ith soot, salt 
acts with great power on roots. Mr. Sinclair mixed six 
and a half bushels of soot with the same quantity of salt, 
and used the mixture on lands sowed to carrots. The 
result was, that unmanured land gave twenty-three tons 
of roots per acre, and the manured yielded forty tons per 
acre ; and Mr. Cartwright found that where umnanured 
soil gave 157 bushels of potatoes per acre, 30 bushels of 
soot and six of salt made it produce 240 bushels per acre. 
Dr. Dana furnishes so beautiful an explanation of the man- 
ner in which this manure acts, that it deserves a place 
entire : " By mixing quicklime with common salt, its 
soda is let loose, the acid combines with the lime, forming 



SALT AND LIME MIXED. 71 

a soluble salt of lime, and so long as the soda remains 
caustic, it has no effect on the muriate of lime, but as soon 
as the soda becomes mild or carbonated, decomposition of 
the muriate of lime is produced, and the common salt 
regenerated. Commencing then with quicklime and salt, 
we pass to a soluble salt of lime and caustic soda, and 
from that to mild soda, and to carbonate of lime and the 
original salt. If these various changes take place in the 
midst of peat or geine, it is evident that the caustic soda 
acts upon the geine, and also evolves ammonia from that 
substance ; secondly, that the muriate of lime, in its finely 
soluble state, insinuates itself among the particles of the 
geine ; that the soda is also equally diffused, and that 
when the soda becomes carbonated, it produces an almost 
impalpable carbonate of lime throughout the whole mass, 
which, by its equal diffusion through the soil with the 
geine, acts upon the silicates, as has been heretofore ex- 
plained." To produce these effects, Dr. D. directs to take 
one bushel of salt and two bushels of lime ; to make the 
salt into strong brine, and with it slack the lime. Mix 
both well together, and let them remain ten days ; then 
let them be well mixed with three cords of peat, shovelled 
well over for about six weeks, when it may be used. 
A quantity of salt sufficient to destroy all vegetation may 
be applied to a soil with safety when a few months are 
to elapse before the crop is to be put on ; as the chemical 
changes which take place, partially neutralize its effect 
during this time. A small quantity mixed with the soil 
in each hill of corn has been found to protect it from the 
wire worm and the cut worm ; indeed there is no sub- 
stance that insects of all kinds more dread than salt. It 
is probable, therefore, that further experiments will show 
that not the least value of salt is to be found in its pre- 
ventive properties against these depredators. 

Having noticed the several articles usually classed un- 
der the head of amendments, mineral manures or salts, 
we now proceed to speak of other kinds. Here again we 
shall be largely indebted to the Farm House. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ACTION OF MANURES. 

The various relics of vegetables and animals that have 
been endowed with life, are destined to serve as aliment 
for plants ; it is while gradually suffering disorganization 
that they furnish the soluble or volatile products that can 
be assimilated. Thus, when plants are pulled up and 
thrown into a heap, a fermentation takes place, warms the 
mass, disengages vapor of water and gases which dis- 
cover their odor more or less ; some of the altered juice 
no longer retained in the organic tissues, which are gra- 
dually rent, runs out or is dissolved in the rain water ; 
these disengaged gases with the vapor of water, and the 
substances in solution, are what serve as manure. 

The remains of dead animals present similar phenome- 
na ; the products of their decomposition, soluble or gaseous, 
develope a stronger odor ; they differ remarkably by a 
much more abundant production of ammonia, and by a 
more lively and effective action, for which reason much 
less is required upon a given surface. 

Finally, animal evacuations give directly liquid and 
gaseous matters assimilable by plants, and which consti- 
tute the most active part of all the dungs. 

These spontaneous decompositions, which are favored 
by the oxygen of the air and its temperature, exhale es- 
pecially carbonic acid, free or combined, of which the 
plants can extract the carbon, to increase their solid parts. 

Many agricultural writers had said, without gaining the 
concurrence of all, however, that in the fermentation of 
manures the disengagement of a great part of the volatile 
products is an important loss of elements useful to vegeta- 



ACTION OF MANURES. 73 

tion. Nevertheless, almost all agriculturists had observed 
an unfavorable influence more or less marked, of dungs in 
a raw state, and especially of the various animal matters, 
such as flesh, blood, viscera, &c. Thus science indicated 
all the useful elements, and practice seemed to have learn- 
ed how much of them it was necessary to lose in order to 
insure to the residue an indisputable efficacy. 

The question was in this state, when the central Society 
of Agriculture having offered prizes, the memoir which 
obtained the first demonstrated that we could apply with- 
out any loss all organic matters, even the most putresci- 
ble, to fertilize the earth, and thus double, triple, and even 
sometimes increase ten-fold their useful effects. I have 
since observed also that in fertile soils, a slight alkaline 
reaction, due either to lime or carbonate of soda or of 'pot- 
ash which are found in ashes, &c, or to the carbonate of 
ammonia disengaged by animal matters, gives great ac- 
tivity to vegetation. That most of the acids or acid salts 
are injurious to the germination and growth of plants, 
but that, on the contrary, they can indirectly aid the pro- 
cess, when without being in contact with the extremities 
of the roots, they react upon the carbonate of lime, gradu- 
ally decompose it, and liberate the carbonic acid, a verita- 
ble aliment of vegetation. 

There are other influences not less important, in which 
practice is made to agree with theory, by a severe exa- 
mination of all the facts lately often contradictory, and 
which I have hastened to submit to the scientific as well 
as to enlightened practical men. 

I have already said that manures of organic matter act 
the more usefully when their spontaneous decomposition 
is slow and best proportioned to the growth of vegeta- 
bles ; the following results are not less constant. 

The most active manures, as well as those which a 
strong resistance to decomposition renders too slow to act 
and almost inert, can be put into the favorable conditions 
aforesaid. 

By bringing to the most suitable condition the manures 



74 the farmer's mine. 

whose dissolution and spontaneous decomposition is the 
most rapid, we can quadruple and even increase six-fold 
their available effect.* 

Muscular flesh, blood, and various animal substances, 
as well as dungs which were heretofore permitted to 
change so as to lose from 0.5 to 0.9 of their products, can 
now be turned to account without experiencing any previous 
loss. 

The strong drying and disinfecting agency of carbona- 
ceous substances, or dull and very porous charcoal, can be 
applied to the preservation, of very alterable manures, and 
to the solution of problems of the highest interest to the 
public health. 

Various organic substances dissolved, or in suspension in 
very small proportions in water, used in abundant irriga- 
tion, can effect the most remarkable results of a beautiful 
vegetation. 

Manures, whose partial emanations are not easily mod- 
erated, may pass in part without assimilation into plants, 
so as to maintain there the strong odor which character- 
izes them. By previous disinfection, this serious inconve- 
nience can be prevented. A direct experiment demon- 
strates besides, that certain odorous elements may be 
secreted even in the flesh of animals, and especially of 
fishes. 

The most striking anomalies in the action of bones used 
as manure are rationally explained, enter into the general 
theory, and may be avoided in practice or reproduced at 
pleasure. 

Dull charcoals, in very light powder, impregnated with 
minutely divided or soluble organic substances, act use- 
fully. 1. By their peculiar faculty of retarding sponta- 
neous decomposition, by which the assimilable emanations 
are better proportioned to the absorbing power of the 
plants (for the charcoal alone does not perceptibly yield 

* Thus animal carbon, containing 0.15 of dry soluble blood, acts more 
at an equal weight than soluble blood ; that is to say, by retarding the 
putrefaction the useful effect is rendered six-fold. 



VEGETABLE MANURES. 75 

any of its own substance to the action of the spongy ex- 
tremities of the roots). 2. And moreover, as an interme- 
diate agent capable of condensing the gases and yielding 
them to plants under the influences of temperature, or 
humidity, which alter its power of condensation. 3. By 
absorbing the heat of the solar rays and transmitting them 
to the soil, and during the night to the parts of°plants 
above ground, thus compensating for the causes which 
would effect too sudden and great a cooling. 

Of different manures. 
After having summed up the general principles relative 
to organic manures in different conditions, we proceed to 
apply them to the treatment and use of substances parti- 
cularly designed to serve as manures in agriculture. 



CHAPTER IX. 

VEGETABLE MANURES. 

Of land plants. — Manures produced by the green parts. 

The use of vegetables as manures has doubtless always 
been known. The Greeks, we are told by Theophrastus : 
the Romans, according to Pliny, Columella, and almost 
all the authors whose works remain, recurred frequently 
to this means in cultivation upon a large scale. " Some- 
times," says Varro, " we sow various plants, not for their 
own sake, but to improve the following crop, their leaves 
imparting to a lean soil a greater fertility. Thus it is a 
common practice to bury, instead of manure, lupines before 
their pods begin to form, and sometimes beans before 
they are ripe enough to be harvested." Columella recom- 
mends in a still more explicit manner the use of the same 
means. He advises, in sandy soils, to bury these vegeta- 



76 the farmer's mine. 

bles while they are yet tender, that they may rot more 
promptly ; and in more tenacious soils to let them become 
hard and woody, that they may the longer be able to keep 
the clods in a state of division. 

The practice of green manuring is also general in Italy. 
Philippo Re and his excellent translator M. Dupont, give 
us numerous proofs of it. Throughout Tuscany maize is 
sown in August to be plowed in the beginning of October. 
The Bressans employ a similar method upon the light 
soils on which they propose to sow wheat. They sow 
lupines upon a second plowing at the time before men- 
tioned, in the proportion of one and one-fourth bushels to 
the acre. In the Bolonais and the territory of Cesene, after 
harvest, they take advantage of the first rain to sow beans 
upon the ridge of each furrow in the proportion of two 
and a half bushels to the acre ; in autumn, when they are 
in flower, they are buried with the spade to prepare the 
soil to receive the following March a crop of hemp. In 
Vicentin, they cut down the beans in January, and bury 
them just before sowing the crop they are designed to 
nourish. The Tuscans cut them the last of August or first 
of September, and use them to ameliorate light soils in 
which they bury them at the time of sowing. The rocket 
(sysymbrimn), although enlightened cultivators do not 
consider it one of the plants most advantageous for this 
purpose, is still employed in a pretty large way in the 
Bolonese country, and in some parts of ancient Roma- 
nia. Sown the last of August, at the rate of from four to 
five pounds to the acre, it is ready to be buried from the 
middle to the end of November. In the environs of Como 
French beans {haricot) are preferred. In some parts ot 
the Milanais from time immemorial turnips are turned in 
green, notwithstanding their value as fodder. Finally, 
in the valley of the Arno, in the country of Reggia, in 
Calabria, &c, &c, there are sown for the same purpose, 
according to the different localities, galega or goats-rue, 
lentiles, vetches, the common sainfoin, and that of Spain, 
millet, and maize.. 



YEGETABLE MANURES. 77 

The practice of buried crops is also quite general in 
some of our southern departments. Lupines and buck- 
wheat are commonly cultivated there for the sole purpose 
of making up the deficiency of manure. These two plants 
of rapid growth, not difficult in the choice of soils, rich in 
foliaceous parts, and whose vegetation is proof against 
drought, can be sown by the aid of a single plowing 
upon a stubble turned over immediately after harvest and 
buried at the moment of flowering so as not at all to retard 
the fall sowing. Buckwheat, of which the seed can every- 
where be procured at a low price, and about one bushel 
and a quarter of which is sufficient for an acre for the 
present purpose, especially offers great resources to a poor 
country. It succeeds better than lupines in our northern 
districts, as do clover, spurry, and radishes, which are cul- 
tivated for the same purpose upon light and dry soils. 
Beans, peas, and vetches, are preferred for clay soils. 

It is a custom already quite ancient upon the banks of 
the Rhone, and particularly in the environs of Bescany, to 
sow vetches or buckwheat immediately after the harvest 
of wheat, and to plow them under the last of September 
to sow rye. After the rye is harvested the same culture 
is renewed to prepare the ground to receive wheat in 
October. 

According to M. Sutieres, the bean is the best of the 
green manures for wheat and grass. This plant will in 
time fertilize the most moderate soils. It is mown in its 
blossom or a little after, and a furrow is turned upon it 
with the plow. 

The fine hemps of the Bolonais are due to the burying 
of rye in the blossom, and the people of Turin use the 
same grain as a manure between the crops of maize and 
of wheat. 

We shall not cite more numerous examples because we 
shall necessarily have to occupy ourselves yet with buried 
crops in entering into the details of rotations. 

In proportion as we proceed from the south to the north 
the advantages of green manures are less ; so, notwith- 



78 the farmer's mine. 

standing some successful experiments made in England 
and Ireland, the cultivators of these countries have for the 
most part given up this mode of manuring, considering it 
much more profitable to convert the green crops into 
dung, by having them consumed by cattle, than to bury 
them. 

Time is not always and everywhere found, or weather 
favorable enough, between harvest and seeding, to obtain 
a crop fit to be buried at the approach of the latter period. 
In such a case the manure crops cannot be made availa- 
ble except on a fallow. They take place by a spring 
sowing, but they prepare an impoverished soil for that of 
the autumn infinitely better than a summer fallowing, 
should such be necessary, since they are equivalent to a 
dunging, and that without any sensible increase of labor 
or expense, inasmuch as the plo wings are not much, if 
any, more numerous, and with a little care it is always 
easy to have the necessary seed upon the estate itself. 

In some circumstances the burying of green crops pre- 
cedes the spring sowing. This happens, quite rarely, when 
upon bad soils we bury successively several crops, the last 
of which cannot be commenced upon till the approach of 
cold weather, and we have reason not to plow in till 
spring an old piece of clover, or any other artificial 
meadow. At other times after one or more cuttings 
during the course of the summer, the last is renewed to be 
buried in autumn. Most commonly only the roots are 
buried ; but this operation does not belong to the subject 
with which we are at present occupied. 

The herbaceous plants are not the only ones which are 
used as green manures. Woody plants and shrubs are 
also used. In clearing ground covered with broom, sedge, 
and heath, instead of burning, or when burning a part of 
these plants upon the ground, the tops are buried first 
beneath the reach of the plow, thus obtaining from them 
a durable manure, and an excellent amendment of strong 
soils. 

They are also collected in bundles and carried to the 



VEGETABLE MANURES. 79 

vineyards exhausted by long production, to restore their 
fecundity without injuring the quality of their products. 
In this case a trench is opened between the ranges of 
props of eight or ten inches broad, without fear of cutting 
a few fibres, and after having filled it \* ith branches, it is 
covered by means of the earth raised from the next trench. 
The effect of this operation, particularly applicable to 
rather strong soils, is perceivable for a great number of 
years. 

The manures taken from the vegetable kingdom, less 
than those which come from the animal kingdom, having; 
the inconvenience of changing the savor of fruits, the 
branches of yew, the clippings of box, &c, &c, are almost 
everywhere esteemed to aid the vigor of fruit trees. Va- 
rious cistes, the gnaphalium, and other plants which 
abound in the most arid places in the south of Europe, are 
carefully collected in Tuscany under the name ofiignamiche, 
and placed at the roots of the olive trees, after having lain in 
a heap long enough to begin to ferment. I have seen this 
method also practised in some parts of the heaths of the 
department of Herault. In short, all the herbaceous or 
sub-ligneous stalks and all the green parts of vegetables, 
when no better use can be found for them, can be immediately 
transformed into manure. They ferment the more promptly 
in proportion as they contain more parenchymatous sub- 
stance and less of woody fibre, and as the decomposition 
of their fibres is facilitated by the abundance of saccharine 
and mucilaginous matters. 

I have said that buried crops as manure are better suited 
to warm climates than to others. For the same reason 
they are better suited to dry soils than to moist. The 
water which they gradually give up while decomposing 
produces an equal and constant moisture, than which 
nothing could be more favorable to the growth of plants, 
when it is accompanied by heat, and when, as in the pre- 
sent case, it is in contact with soluble matters. The richer 
a plant is in soft and pulpy parts, the better it will serve 
for a green manure, not only for the reason I have just 



80 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

mentioned, but because we may infer from the number and 
thickness of its leaves that it must have derived from the 
atmosphere a great part of its nutritive elements. 

For clayey and moist localities it would be necessary, on 
the contrary, to choose branchy and tough stalks of slow 
decomposition, in order to obtain an amendment. This 
truth is not new : we have seen that it was perfectly under- 
stood by the Romans. 

The best time to bury green crops is while in the blos- 
som. Then, especially, they are distended with juice 
without having taken hardly anything from the soil, for it 
has been demonstrated that they do not generally begin to 
exhaust the soil till from the time when the seed begins to 
form to its ripening. 

Green manures are far from being sufficiently valued in 
all places where they might be employed to advantage. 

To the above we may add the following cheap and easy 
mode of enriching the soil by plowing in green crops. 

Commence in the spring with sowing buckwheat on the 
lot to be improved. When the buckwheat is in full bloom 
and before the grain forms, turn it under. At the usual 
time sow again with buckwheat, and at the same time 
sow one bushel of rye to the acre. In the fall gather 
your crop of buckwheat, while you let the rye remain. 
The following season, when the rye is in full bloom, plow 
it under, and in due time sow again with buckwheat and 
rye. Continue this course until your land has attained a 
desirable fertility. By this simple process the poorest 
soil may be enriched at the small annual expense of one 
bushel of rye to the acre. 

Mr. John W. Sweet, of Tyringham, Berkshire county, 
informs us that he plants his corn in the following manner, 
and has realized 110 bushels shelled corn to the acre. 

He spreads what manure he intends for the field on the 
surface of the green-sward ; then he plows the land into 
ridges about three feet apart in the fall — each ridge or row 
being made of two back-furrows turned upon a narrow 
strip of sward which is not disturbed. In the spring he 



MANURES PRODUCED BY THE DEAD OR DRY PARTS. 81 

rolls and harrows these ridges, and on the top of each 
ridge, 12 or 14 inches apart, he plants his hills of corn, three 
or four kernels in the hill, and cultivates his corn through 
the season with the hoe, cultivator and plow, as much as 
he deems necessary. In this method, he remarked that he 
was not troubled with weeds or drought. 

In the fall, as soon as his corn is ripe, he gathers the 
ears, then pulls up all the corn-stalks and lays them down 
lengthways between the furrows, and then splits his 
ridges with the plow and covers these stalks completely. 
Thus are made his ridges for his second crop of corn, to be 
planted the succeeding spring. The 110 bushels was the 
second crop, planted over the buried stalks. 

The above is sufficient to give the reader an idea of this 
system. He contends after the first crop he wants no 
manure for his corn except the stalks applied as we have 
described. 



CHAPTER X. 

MANURES PRODUCED BY THE DEAD OR DRY PARTS. 

Plants in drying lose some of their nutritive quality. 
Hence in this state they are scarcely employed for the im- 
provement of the soil, except after having been trans- 
formed into litter. They then usually form part of the 
mixed manures of which we shall speak hereafter. The 
stalks of maize and rye, the stubble and straw of grain, 
and damaged hay, are particularly useful in this case. 

The leaves, which derive a great part of their nourish- 
ment from the atmosphere, in process of time by their de- 
posits fertilize the most ungrateful soil. While it is im- 
possible to imitate with advantage in the large way, by 
covering whole fields with, leaves, the processes which 
nature employs in the woods, it is at least quite common 
to turn these valuable products to account in gardens. 
They are in various ways transformed into light mould 
5 



82 THE FARMER S MINE. 

adapted to the vegetation of delicate plants. They are 
also mixed with the manures to increase and improve the 
mass, and I know some localities near immense plantations 
of timber, where this practice is not one of the least ad- 
vantages of such cultivation. 

The ferns in lands where they abound — the leaves of 
weeds destroyed in the fields or by the road sides before 
the maturity of their seeds, which would hurt the soil by 
being permitted to ripen — the mosses — the leaves which 
can be procured in abundance at so little expense by em- 
ploying children to gather in the coppices and the forests, 
yield in many places, and might in many others by the 
same means, important resources. 

Notwithstanding the fertility of the vegetable mould 
which is found in the decayed trunks of trees, I only men- 
tion it here because its use does not belong to agriculture. 
The same is true of saw-dust, the slow decomposition of 
which makes it particularly fit to enter into the composi- 
tion of the soils for artificial heaths. 

As to the bark from the vats of the tanners, where it 
has lost at least a great part of its astringent principles, it 
is known nevertheless that by itself in this state it is little 
favorable to vegetation. It is sometimes mixed with pou- 
drette, but it is a fraud doubly criminal, for while increas- 
ing the quantity it deteriorates the quality. As the tan is 
almost entirely composed of woody fibre, to induce fer- 
mentation more speedily, Davy recommends the use of 
lime. 

The chaff from the threshing-floor, the skives from the 
preparation of hemp cr flax, can also, though they con- 
tain little nutritive substance, be converted into manures. 
In almost all our country they are carelessly thrown upon 
the dung heap. People are not everywhere so careless. 
In Frieul they are softened awhile in water before throw- 
ing them into heaps. They thus ferment more readily. 
In Bressan they are spread upon natural meadows at the 
rate of from six to twelve cartloads to the acre. They 
serve besides to manure vines and fruit trees. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MANURES PRODUCED BY SEEDS AND FRUITS. 

Philippo Re remarks that he has seen the seeds of the 
lupine put into ovens to take away their germinative power 
and then used as a manure at the roots of olive and orange 
trees. The effect of this substance very speedily appears ; 
and there is less reason to wonder at it, inasmuch as, after 
animal matters, seeds are probably of all parts of vegeta- 
bles those which have the greatest fattening property for 
the same bulk. Deprived even of some of their elements, 
they preserve this property in a high degree. 

All the dregs of fruit, when no more profitable use can 
be found for them, can therefore become manures. Those 
of grapes, after having fermented for some time in a mass 
covered, serve to fertilize the vineyards, orchards, mea- 
dows, and even the grain crops, in the south of Europe. 
Almost everywhere it is turned to account in gardening. 

The pomace of apples and pears, though less active, 
can be employed in part for the same purposes. First rot- 
ted, then mixed with one-half earth and carried on to dry 
and arid fields, it produces a good effect. In Normandy it 
is thought especially to have the property of improving 
meadows and young orchards. 

The grains of malt> the use of which for fattening cat- 
tle, and their scarcity in France, hardly permits them to 
be classed among vegetable substances for fertilizing the 
soil in our country, in the environs of London, where its 
production is immense, is in as much demand, almost, as 
the best of dungs, since the quantity spread on is from 
twenty-eight to forty bushels to the acre. This effect is 
explained by the proportion of azotized matter which 
they retain. 



84 the farmer's mine. 

Finally, the dregs of oleaginous seeds or fruits make 
specially good manures. The former deserve here a par- 
ticular notice. 

In the department du Nord, the oil cakes have become, 
so to speak, one of the conditions of the good cultivation 
of the country. They are employed upon light and free 
soils, principally for the culture of grains and for the col- 
zas and flax. It is not uncommon there to see farmers 
spread upon less than forty-five acres, besides all other 
manures, more than eight thousand cakes of colza or 
cameline, which cost them in an ordinary year from two 
hundred and seventy-five to three hundred dollars. 

In England, where the oil cake of rape seed is coming more 
and more into use, and where the price of them has been 
raised, instead of using as formerly even half a ton to the 
acre, they now put not more than eight hundred pounds 
or even less upon the same surface, and it seems the results 
are still very good. According to Taylor, one ton is suf- 
ficient to fertilize a field of three acres, sown with turnips 
broad-cast, and of five acres when sown in drills. 

In the south of France the cakes of colza are used in 
very variable doses according to the fertility of the soil. 
Upon very good ground they succeed with a dose that very 
little exceeds what I have just mentioned ; in other cases it 
has been extended from six to seven hundred pounds per 
acre ; in other cases still, for soils of poorer quality, from 
eight to nine hundred pounds, and even beyond one thou- 
sand pounds. Finally, in the Bolonais, for the exhausting 
crop of hemp, they have gone as high as sixteen or seven- 
teen hundred pounds, next to the cakes of colza prefer- 
ring those of flax-seed and nuts. 

The oleaginous dregs are not always used in the same 
manner. In the Bolonais of which I have just spoken, in 
almost all of England and some of our own departments, 
after having pulverized them more or less, they sow them 
by hand some clays before sowing, and cover them at the 
same time with the seed. In other parts of Italy, in the 
neighborhood of Lille, of Valenciennes, &c, &c, they 



MANURES PRODUCED FROM THE HERBAGE OF FRESH WATER. 85 

sprinkle it in the spring upon the young plants already 
come up, as is done in other cases with the strongest ma- 
nures and stimulants. 

Some conclusive experiments have proved that the 
maceration of oil cakes in water produces a liquid manure 
of great energy. In the Netherlands, also, they are mixed 
with the urine of the stables or other animal substances. 

The dregs of olives, which contain the skin, the paren- 
chyma, and the kernel, however well prepared, even in 
the improved mills, contain some oil which is extracted by 
rotting them in cisterns y the mud which is left at the bot- 
toms of these cisterns is an excellent manure, which, how- 
ever, Bosc affirms is scarcely used in the districts of 
France where the olive is cultivated. I have seen it used 
here and there in nurseries and at the roots of each tree in 
olive yards. 

For a few years past the attempt has been made to sub- 
stitute oil itself for the oleaginous cakes. I do not believe 
that such a practice is to be recommended ; for if the 
cakes produce so good effects upon the soil, it is doubtless 
to be attributed more to the large quantities of azotized 
albuminous substance which they contain, than to a cer- 
tain portion of oil which they retain. Besides, no one 
can doubt that the question of economy must entirely pro- 
scribe the use of oils as manures. 



CHAPTER XII. 

MANURES PRODUCED FROM THE HERBAGE OF FRESH WATER. 

Among the grasses which grow in fresh water, we must 
distinguish, regard being paid to their use as manures, be- 
tween those which are decomposed under water and give 
rise to peat, and those which are taken while green, to be 
used for the benefit of the soil while in that state. 



86 the farmer's mine. 

Peat, in this respect, like all substances organic and 
inorganic which have been used for a long time, with- 
drawn from immediate contact with the atmospheric gases, 
is at first completely unfit for vegetation. In proportion as 
it experiences a second decomposition under the influence 
of the oxygen of the air, it becomes a good manure ; but 
this decomposition is excessively slow ; hence it is gene- 
rally preferred to burn it and spread the ashes, rather than 
use it directly. In many circumstances, however, it may 
be desirable to use it to increase the mass of manures. 
This is effected in different ways. 

In Ireland, after having simply dried and pulverised it, 
it is used with the addition of a little lime for all the 
small crops, and especially potatoes. 

As this substance, from its chemical formation, has 
scarcely any solubility, in order to hasten its fermentation, 
Lord Meadowbank has judiciously recommended to mix it 
with other substances less fixed, such as manures easily 
putrescible and already in a state of decomposition, and 
this advice has been generally followed with success. The 
use of magnesian lime, common lime, calcareous marls, 
and alkaline ashes, had produced similar effects whenever 
it has been sought by this means either to render peat-bogs 
cultivable, or to reduce peat to a manure. We can, there- 
fore, reach the same results in two ways. The English 
writer whom I have just mentioned, proves in fact that one 
part of warm dung is sufficient to bring three or four parts 
of peat to a suitable state of fermentation. On the other 
hand the German Kasteler has satisfied himself from nu- 
merous direct experiments, that lime newly slacked and in 
the state of a hydrate, that is to say, reduced to powder by 
means of water, on its coming from the kiln, acts upon 
the peat in such a manner as gradually to transform the 
fibrous and resinous parts which it contains into humic acid, 
which indirectly forms the humate of lime, a very durable 
manure, which might thus be prepared for the wants of 
agriculture with great facility. The most common prac- 
tice, which consists in stratifying the stable dung and peat 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES 87 

dried and pulverized, and a little afterwards mixing them 
all together, embraces all the advantages of both theories. 

Most of the English cultivators often employ peat 
mould as a top-dressing, that is to say, sowing it in the 
spring upon the plants already growing. In pursuing this 
mode they find there is as much to be gained in the effect 
produced, the economy of labor and that of the manure. 

There are few countries where the aquatic plants of 
marshes and pools are not collected to supply the defi- 
ciency of manures or increase the mass. Sometimes these 
plants are left spread upon the soil several days, after be- 
ing gathered, and are then simply plowed in ; sometimes 
they are thrown in heaps to decompose, and are trans- 
formed into composts, by mixing them with different pro- 
portions of earth. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 

In view of the great abundance of muck, or peat, in 
every section of our country, and the little attention hitherto 
paid to it as a manure, we present the following valuable 
article, from Dana's Muck Manual, together with several 
experiments testing its importance : 

Having considered the relative value of the two classes 
of manure, those composed of salt, and of salt and geine, 
that consisting chiefly of geine is now to be explained. 

First and foremost in this class is swamp muck, mud or 
peat. This class includes also dry leaves, dry vegetables 
of all sorts, plowing in of green or dry crops, irrigation. 
These are fruitful topics. The principles only of their 
action can be pointed out. The application of the princi- 
ple must be left to the farmer. The why of things has 
been shown ; the how must be deduced from the why by 
practical men. 



88 the farmer's mine. 

Peat is too well known to render it necessary to say 
that it is the result of that spontaneous change in vegetable 
matter which ends in geine. Peat is, among manures 
consisting chiefly of geine, what bone dust is among 
manures consisting of animal matter. Peat is highly con- 
centrated vegetable food. When the state in which this 
food exists is examined, it is found not only partly cooked, 
but seasoned. 

Peat consists of soluble and insoluble geine and salts. 
The proportion of these several ingredients must be known 
before the value of peat can be compared with similar con- 
stituents in cow dung. This proportion is exhibited in the 
following table of constitution of Massachusetts peat per 
100 parts. 

Soluble Insoluble Total Salts and 

Locality. Geine. Geine. Geine. Silicates. 

1. Dracut, 14- 72- 86- 14- 

2. Sunderland, 26- 56-60 85-60 14-40 

3. Westborough, 48-80 43-60 92-40 7-60 
! 4. Hadley, 34- 60- 94- 6- 

' 5. Northampton, 38-30 44.15 82-45 17-55 

6. « 32- 54-90 86-90 13-10 

7. " 12- 60-85 72-85 27-15 

8. « 10- 49-45 59-45 40-55 

9. « 33- 59- 92- 8. 
10. « 46- 46-80 92-80 7-20 



Average, 29-41 55-03 84.44 15-55 

11. Watertown, pond mud, 5-10 8-90 14- 86- 

12. Danvers, pond mud, 8.10 6-50 14-60 84-40 

Under the general name of peat are comprised several 
varieties, which may be distinguished as, 1st. Peat, the 
compact substance generally known and used for fuel, 
under this name. 2d. Turf, or swamp muck, by which is 
to be understood, the paring which is removed before peat 
js dug. It is a less compact variety of peat. It is com- 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 89 

mon in all meadows and swamps, and includes the 
hassocks. Both these varieties are included in the above, 
from No. 1 to No. 10. It includes, also, the mud of salt- 
marshes. 3d. Pond mud, the slushy material, found at the 
bottom of ponds when dry, or in low grounds, the wash of 
higher lands. This seldom contains more than 20 per 
cent, of geine. Nos. 11. and 12 are of this description. 

These varieties comprise probably a fair sample of all 
the peat and swamp muck and pond mud, which occur in 
the various parts of the country. The results stated, are 
those of the several varieties, when dried, at a temperature 
of 240° F. The composition of peat ashes has been 
alluded to. They contain, in fact, all the inorganic 
principles of plants, which are insoluble, with occasional 
traces of the soluble alkaline sulphates, and of free 
alkali. 

It is well known that all peat shrinks by drying, and 
when perfectly dried, at 240° F. loses from 73 to 97 per 
cent, of water. When allowed to drain as dry as it will, 
it still contains about 2-3 of its weight of water. It 
shrinks from 2-3 to 3-4 of its bulk. A cord wet becomes 
1-4 to 1-3 of a cord when dry. To compare its value with 
cow dung, equal bulks must be taken, and hence, to dry 
peat, a bulk of water must be supposed to be added, in 
proportion above stated, or still better, because easier done, 
the pile of dry peat is to be estimated by the pit left after 
dio-nfino;. It will be found on the above data, that 100 
parts of fresh dug peat, of average quality, contain — 

Water, 85- 

Salts of lime, '50 

Silicates, -50 

Geine, 14* 

100- 

This does not differ much from fresh cow dung, so far as 
salts, geine, and water are concerned. The salts of lime 
are actually about the same, while the alumina, oxide of 

5* 



90 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

iron, magnesia, in the silicates added to the sajts of lime, 
make the total amount of salts, in round numbers, equal 
that of cow dung. 

If the bulks of these are compared, it will be found, that 
at 90 lbs. per bushel, fall measure, and 103 bushels being 
allowed to a cord, — each contains and weighs as follows, 
in pounds : 

Weight Soluble Insoluble Total Salts of 
Geine. Geine. Geine. Lime. 
Dung, 9289 12S 1288 1416 92 

No. 9 peat of table, 9216 376 673 1049 91 
No. 10, " " 9216 519 529 1048 81 

A cord of pond mud (No. 11) weighs when dug, 6117 
lbs. and contains solid matter, 3495 lbs., composed of geine, 
495 lbs. ; of silicates and salts, 3000 lbs. The salts of 
lime in pond mud, are 2£ per cent. 

The salts and geine of a cord of peat are equal to the 
manure of one cow for three months. It is certainly a very 
curious coincidence of results, that nature herself should 
have prepared a substance, whose agricultural value ap- 
proaches so near cow dung, the type of manures. This 
subject may have been now sufficiently explained. De- 
parting from cow dung and wandering through all the 
varieties of animal and vegetable manures, we land in a 
peat-bog. The substance under our ieet is analyzed, and 
found to be cow dung, without its musky breath of cow 
odor, or the power of generating ammonia. That pro- 
cess is over — a part of the ammonia remains, still evident 
to the senses by adding caustic potash. It exists in part, 
either as a component of crenic and apocrenic acid, or 
combined with geine, or as phosphate of ammonia, and 
when the presence of ammonia is added to the salts, whose 
existence has already been pointed out, it may be said, 
that peat approaches dung, moistened with the liquid 
evacuation of the animal. 

The power of producing alkaline action, on the insolu- 
ble geine, is alone wanted to make peat good cow dung. 
Reviewing the various matters, from whatever source de- 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 91 

rived, solid or liquid, which are used as manure, all pos- 
sess one common property, that of generating ammonia. 
The conclusion then of this whole matter, is this ; the value 
of all manures depends on salts, geine, and ammonia; and it 
is directly in proportion to the last ; it follows, that any 
substance affording these elements, may be substituted for 
manure. 

The great question comes, how is to be given to peat, a 
substance which, in all its other characters, is so nearly 
allied to cow dung, that lacking element ammonia ? How 
is that to be supplied ? Without it, cow dung itself would 
be no better than peat, nay, not so good ; for in peat, 
nearly one-half of the geine' is already in a soluble state. 
Passing by the fact, already alluded to, that peat contains 
traces of ammonia, which, evolved when treated with 
caustic potash, exerts its usual action ; it may be added, 
that possibly in the process of vegetation, when the 
decomposing power of the living plant is exerted on peat 
and the silicates, caustic potash is produced, and ammonia 
evolved. Considering peat as a source of nitrogen only, 
it is evident that the action of alkali is of the highest 
practical importance. 

In this part of the subject of manure, probabilities and 
possibilities are no longer admissible. There are two facts 
well established by experience, relating to the action of 
ammonia in dang. First, it has been shown that dun*; 
produces nitrates. Porous substances and alkali possess 
the power of forming nitrates ; these substances, alkali 
and porous substances, act like spongy platina, they induce 
a catalytic power, and the consequence is, that the ele- 
ments of the air, oxygen and nitrogen, unite, and form 
nitric acid ; this combines with the alkali, and conse- 
quently nitrates are produced. The other well established 
fact, in relation to the action of ammonia in dung, is the 
power of dissolving and converting geine, which has been 
previously explained. The most valuable of these two 
properties is that of producing soluble geine. The form- 
ation of nitrates may be quite, and ordinarily is, prevented. 
It is the alkaline action which is sought. 



92 THE farmer's mine. 

Ity, then, the addition of alkali to peat, it is put into the 
state which ammonia gives to dung. The question then 
arises, how much alkali is to be added to swamp muck 
or peat, to convert that into cow dung 1 Recurring to the 
doctrine of chemical proportions, whose value to the 
farmer is thus made evident, it will be remembered that 
the equivalent of potash and soda, that is, that portion of 
one which can take the place of the other, is as 2 to 3 ; 
that is, 2 parts of soda are equal to 3 of potash. If either 
of these i"s compared with ammonia, it will be found that 
one part of ammonia is nearly equal to two of soda. 
When these substances are met with in commerce, it is in 
the state of salts ; as carbonate of ammonia of the shops, 
or white ash or potash and pearlash. The equivalent of 
these is deduced from determining the pure alkali of each, 
adding the equivalent of carbonic acid, and to this the 
usual impurity. It is found that 

59 parts of ammonia, are equal to 
58 " soda, or white ash, or to 
72 " 1st quality pot or pearlash, or 
86 " 2d quality pot or pearlash. 

For all agricultural purposes, it may be considered, that 
salts of hartshorn, or carbonate of ammonia, and white or 
soda ash, are equal, pound for pound, and that pots and 
pearls may be taken at one-half more. 

If all the nitrogen in dung becomes ammonia, then, as 
has been shown, each 100 lbs. affords 2 lbs. 2 oz. Dis- 
carding fractions, let it be called 2 lbs. Hence, if to 100 
lbs. fresh dug peat, there are added 2 lbs. soda ash, or 3 
lbs of pot or pearl ashes, all the good effects of real cow 
dung will be produced. Peat or muck thus requires 2 
per cent, of soda ash, or 3 per cent, of potash. 

A cord of green peat weighs 9216 lbs. ; 2 per cent, are 
184 lbs. Hence, a cord requires that amount of soda ash, 
or 276 lbs. of potash. But if the peat is quite dry, so as 
to have lost three-fourths of its bulk, then 736 lbs. of soda 
ash, or 1104 lbs. of potash will be necessary. Two per 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 93 

cent, of alkali seems enormous. It is stated, in the hope 
that it may lead to experiments on the free use of alkali. 
But as it will be hereafter shown, that this is to be reduced 
by mixing with loam or other matter, this quantity, 
even if applied to one acre, will probably produce very 
good effects. It has repeatedly been proved for other pur- 
poses, that a cord of fresh dug peat neutralizes 100 lbs. of 
soda ash, or 400 lbs. to a dry cord. Further, dry peat, by 
boiling with, neutralizes 12£ per cent, of its weight of 
potash, and in actual practice, alkali to the amount of 6 
per cent, of the weight of geine, in pond mud, has been 
used. It would, therefore, appear to be safe to use the 
theoretical proportion. 

But the nitrogen in cow dung does not all tell. It is 
impossible but that some portion of the elements of am- 
monia enter into other combinations, and part also escapes 
as gas. Besides, it is not all brought at once into action, 
and hence, a less portion of alkali than above indicated, 
may be used. It is probable that not a third of the am- 
monia acts. Let it be taken at that quantity. Then the 
equivalents are 100 lbs. fresh peat, and 10| ounces soda, 
or 1 lb. of potash, or 1 per cent, of the weight of the peat 
in commercial potash. 

This proportion will allow in round numbers, to every 
cord of fresh dug peat, 92 lbs. pot or pearl ashes, or 61 
lbs. of soda, or 16 to 20 bushels of common house ashes. 

Having no guide here, from experience, of the quantity 
which may be used per acre, yet in order to arrive at con- 
clusions which could be recommended safely, the alkali 
has been calculated in the quantity of saltpetre which has 
been used, with such signal success, by O. M. Whipple, 
Esq., of Lowell, no less distinguished for the good sense 
with which he undertakes an experiment, than for the 
public spirit which urges him onward to its successful con- 
clusion. On the principles which have been developed, 
when saltpetre is used, the whole alkali is let loose by the 
action of the growing plant. The experience of Mr. 
Whipple is a guide to the quantity of alkali which may 



94 the farmer's mine. 

be safely used. He has used from 50 to 150 lbs. saltpetre 
per acre. The real alkali in saltpetre, may be called half 
of its weight ; or the real alkali used, has been from 25 to 
75 lbs.=36^ lbs. and 109-i lbs. pure carbonate, or in round 
numbers, an average of commercial 1st and 2d quality, of 
49 to 149 lbs. per acre — giving an average of 99 lbs., 
which is nearly 1 per cent, of the weight of a cord of 
green peat, which agrees with the estimate. If, then, this 
is mixed with the usual proportion of geine, which the 
dung used contains, equally good effects per acre ought to 
be produced. 

There are other practical facts, which may help to a 
solution of the question, how much alkali is to be added to 
a cord of peat. According to the experience of Mr. Phin- 
ney of Lexington, an authority which may not be ques- 
tioned, a cord of green dung converts twice its bulk of 
peat into a manure of equal value to itself — that is, a cord 
of clear stable dung, composted with two of peat, forms a 
manure of equal value to three cords of green dung. In- 
deed, the permanent effects of this compost, according to 
Mr. Phinney, exceed those of stable dung. On this fact, 
2 lbs. of ammonia in 100 of cow dung, should convert 200 
lbs. of fresh dug peat into good cow dung. The equivalents 
of these, as has been shown, are 2 lbs. of soda ash, or 3 lbs. 
of potash. Allowing the gaseous ammonia to be divided 
equally among the 300 lbs. of dung and peat, this is in 
proportion of 10| oz. of soda ash, or 1 lb. of potash to 100 
lbs. of fresh peat. Now this calculation, deduced from 
actual experiment, confirms the theoretical proportions, 
supposing only one-third of the nitrogen acts, though that 
was made before the author met with the statement of Mr. 
Phinney. 

There is a coincidence here of proportions, which makes 
it quite certain that the quantity recommended is a per- 
fectly safe basis for agricultural use. By theory, the propor- 
tions are, 1 cord peat, 61 lbs. soda ash, 92 lbs. potash. As 
deduced from the compounds of dung and peat, 61 lbs. 
soda ash, 92 lbs. potash. This proportion gives each cord 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 95 

of peat a value equal to that of cow dung • if one-third 
of its nitrogen acts, it may be composted, as that is, with 
loam, or still better, mixed up at once with its proportion 
of peat. If this is done, then the result will be, in round 
numbers, 1 cord of fresh dug peat, — 20 lbs. of soda ash, 30 
lbs. potash. In March, 1839, the author, in a letter ad- 
dressed to the commissioner for the agricultural survey of 
Massachusetts, threw out the following hint, which was 
published in the second report of Mr. Colman : 

" Take 100 lbs. of peat as sold, or the fine part from the 
bottom of a peat stack — at any rate bruise the peat fine, 
put it into a potash kettle, and 2S lbs. of white ash, and 
130 gallons of water ; boil for a few hours : let it settle, 
dip off the clear for use, add 100 lbs. more of peat, 2h lbs. 
white ash, fill up with water, as much as you have dipped 
off, boil again, settle and dip off. This may be repeated 
five times. How much oftener I know not ; probably as 
long as the vegetable part of peat remains. The clear 
liquor is an alkaline solution of geine. The three first 
boilings contain geine, alumine, iron, magnesia, and sul- 
phate or phosphate of alkali. The dark-colored solution 
contains about half an ounce per gallon of vegetable 
matter. 

" It is to be applied by watering grass lands. The 
' dregs' may be mixed up with the manure or spread as a 
top-dressing; or put in the hill. Experience will teach — 
I only suggest." 

The principle which should guide the farmer in the mak- 
ing of artificial manure, has now been considered. The 
author of these pages is not a practical farmer ; agricul- 
ture is not his pursuit, and he has studied chemistry 
only as a recreation from the daily duties of life. He has 
thrown out suggestions, the result of researches under- 
taken with reference to a totally different object, and these 
suggestions have been acted upon by practical men, whose 
results confirm his previous anticipations. He has no theory 
on this subject to maintain ; his opinions, which must stand or 
fall by practice, speak for themselves. Yet he is not alto- 



98 the farmer's mine. 

gether indifferent to the practical results which may follow 
his suggestions, and he should consider that he had in- 
flicted a serious injury on agriculture by the publication of 
erroneous opinions. When a man's character is to be es- 
tablished in a court of evidence, what is the rule 1 The 
good old English rule ; to call upon the bystanders, the 
country present, taken indiscriminately from all who may 
have known the person. Do not summon persons whose 
interest may throw a shadow of suspicion on the testimony 
of the witness. And so here, let it be proved, if it can be, 
whether the principles here advanced are of practical 
value, by calling upon the stand those gentlemen who 
have tested his opinions, and of some of whose operations 
and results he was ignorant, till he met with them in the 
agricultural publications of the day, or in accidental con- 
versation ; others have been requested to state by letter 
their results, after these pages were prepared for the press. 
The evidence on this point is contained in the Statement 
of Dr. Nichols, beginning on p. 10.2 of this volume. 

Attention might here be called to the extended use of 
peat composted with lime and animal manure ; but it will 
be observed, that it is wished to direct the thoughts, at this 
time, to a compost or artificial manure, without lime or 
animal manure. The author does not go for lime, but for 
soluble alkali. Carbonate of lime alone is not expected 
to produce immediate results, and seldom has, nor can be 
expected to produce visible effects in the first year of its 
application. The why and the wherefore of this has been 
already explained, and it is merely adverted to now to 
guard against any inference favorable to the action of lime 
being deduced from the following facts. Mr. George Rob- 
bins, of Water town, is an extensive manufacturer of soap 
and candles and starch, and still better, a man who em- 
ploys the refuse of these trades in enriching and gladden- 
ing his land. For four years, and it is believed his crops 
will compare with any of the best cultivators around him, 
he has not used a spoonful of manure made by any ani- 
mal, walking either on two legs or on four. He keeps a 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 97 

large number of horses and hogs, and several cows ; he 
uses not a shovelful of their manure, but selling that, he 
uses peat and swamp muck, mixed with his spent barilla 
ashes. The proportions are, one part of spent ashes to 
three of peat, dug up in the fall, mixed in the spring. Af- 
ter shovelling two or three times, it is spread and plowed 
in. The effect is immediate, and so far, lasting. The 
effects of this spent ashes alone on sandy loam, are excel- 
lent ; it makes the whole quite " salvy." 

The composition of spent ashes has already been alluded 
to; a certain portion is carbonate of lime; it is well 
known that, as such, it would produce no better effects 
than so much chalk. A large part of silicate of soda ex- 
ists in the spent ashes. This is decomposed by the carbo- 
nic acid of the air, the alkali then acts on geine, but this 
action is greatly assisted by the carbonate of lime. It is, 
perhaps, the most powerful agent in the decomposition of 
the silicate of soda. Here, then, the action of carbonates on 
silicates tells. And it may be worth while to be reminded 
here, that this action was explained in detail, in order that 
it might be understood, how spent ashes could act so 
rapidly on swamp muck. 

Alkalies and peat, or swamp muck, are within the com- 
mand of almost every farmer. Lime is not within reach, 
and besides, requires no small skill in its management. 
In the preparation of manure, price is everything. Let 
the cost be estimated per cord, of artificial manure, pre- 
pared in the proportions stated. Peat or muck, may be 
called worth fifty cents per cord, and the labor of digging, 
say one dollar, 

$150 
92 lbs. potash, 6 cts. §5 52 
or, 61 lbs. soda ash, or 

white ash, 4 cts. 2 44 

or, 24 bush, ashes, 12]- cts. 3 00 j 



average of alkalies, 3 65 



3)10 96 $5 15 

3 65 



98 THE 

Were they really good hard wood ashes, about 16 bush- 
els would be sufficient, but an excess here is allowed, to 
compensate for variation in quality. This may appear a 
very high price, but it is to be remembered, that its value is 
to be compared with that of a cord of clear cow dung. 
What is the value of cow dung ? It appears from the barn 
account of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, that 
for 9^ years, ending October, 1838, a bushel of clear cow 
dung, costs 21\ cents. During the same time dung of 
inferior quality was delivered at the Print-works, by the 
neighboring farmers, at 20 cents per bushel. Clear dung 
is delivered at the Print-works in Dover at 12£ cents per 
bushel, and at several of the Print-works in Rhode 
Island, at 16 cents per bushel, giving an average of 17*45 
cents per bushel, and as a cord contains, in round numbers, 
100 bushels, its price is $17 45 

Deduct from this the price of an artificial cord, 5 15 

$12 30 
It is hence evident that an artificial cord is only about 
one-third of the price of a natural cord, and if the last may 
be mixed with two parts of loam or swamp muck, so may 
the first, which will reduce the price of artificial manure 
to $2 71. Now this is equal, according to all experience, 
cord for cord, to stable manure ; the value of that may be 
estimated at $5, so that an artificial cord costs only about 
one-half. The best plan for preparing the artificial ma- 
nure, would be to dig the peat or swamp muck in the fall ; 
in the spring of the year let this be mixed in the propor- 
tion of 30 lbs. of potash, or 20 lbs. of soda ash, or 8 
bushels of common house ashes, to every cord of fresh dug 
peat, estimating this by the pit dug out, and allowing 
nothing in the spring for shrinking. If ashes are used, 
they may be mixed in at once with the muck ; but if soda 
ash or potashes are used, they must be dissolved in water 
and the pile evenly wet with the solution. The pile is 
then to be well shovelled over, and used as is other ma- 
nure. But it has been found by experience, that the peat 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 99 

may be dug in the spring, immediately mixed with the 
alkali, and used forthwith. If spent ashes are used to pre- 
pare this muck, add one cord of spent ashes to three cords 
of peat or swamp muck. 

But there are still other forms of cheap alkali, which 
may be recommended, though it may appear inconsistent 
with what has been advanced respecting lime ; but, in this 
case, the lime is converted into a perfectly soluble salt. 
The soda is eliminated caustic, acts on the geine, renders 
it soluble. During the exposure to the volumes of carbo- 
nic acid, evolved from the peat, the caustic soda becomes 
carbonated. This carbonate of soda immediately decom- 
poses the soluble salt of lime, and an insoluble salt of lime 
with a soluble salt of soda, is the result. The effects of 
these various actions, are, first, the geine is made soluble, 
ammonia evolved, which is converted into a nitrate, car- 
bonate of lime produced, which acts as that does in spent 
ashes, and a soluble salt of soda or common salt remains 
in the mass, producing still farther good effects, when its 
alkali is let loose by the action of growing plants. Here 
are rounds of changes taking place, which though the 
farmer may not readily understand, he may easily produce, 
with lime and common salt. It may be stated, in further 
explanation of these changes, that common salt is a com- 
pound of soda and muriatic acid, or muriate of soda, using 
here the old language of chemistry, which is more intelli- 
gible to the farmer, though not philosophically correct. 
By mixing quicklime with common salt, its soda is let 
loose, the acid combines with the lime, forming a soluble 
salt of lime, and as long as the soda remains caustic it has 
no effect on the muriate of lime, but as soon as the soda 
becomes mild or carbonated, decomposition of the muriate 
of lime is produced, and the common salt regenerated. 
Commencing then with quicklime and salt, we pass on to 
a soluble salt of lime and caustic soda, and from that, to 
mild soda, and to carbonate of lime and the original com- 
mon salt. 

If these various changes take place in the midst of peat, 



100 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

or geine, it is evident that the caustic soda acts upon the 
geine, and also evolves ammonia from that substance ; 
secondly, that the muriate of lime in its finely soluble 
state insinuates itself among all the particles of the geine ; 
that the soda also is equally diffused ; and that when the 
soda becomes carbonated, it produces an almost impalpa- 
ble carbonate of lime throughout the whole mass, which, 
by its equal diffusion through the soil with the geine, acts 
upon the silicates, as has been heretofore explained. In 
order to produce these effects, take, 

1 bushel of salt, 
1 cask of lime. 

Slack the lime with the brine, made by dissolving the salt 
in water sufficient to make a stiff paste with the lime, 
which will be not quite sufficient to dissolve all the salt. 
Mix all the materials then well together, and let them 
remain together in a heap for ten days, and then be well 
mixed with three cords of peat : shovel well over for about 
6 weeks, and it will be fit for use. Here, then, are pro- 
duced 3 cords of manure, for about the cost of $2 10 per 
cord. 

Salt, $1 60 

Lime, - 1 60 

Peat, 4 50 



3)$6 30($2 10 

From experiments made in a small way, it is believed 
that this will be found an effectual manure ; the author 
suggests it in the hope that it may lead to cautious experi- 
ment. But there is still another form in which this artifi- 
cial manure may be prepared — that is, by the addition of 
ammonia, the real Simon Pure of cow dung. Take 

3 cords of peat 
61 lbs. sal ammoniac, 
1-4 cask, or about 61 lbs. lime. 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 101 

Slack the lime, dissolve the sal ammoniac, and wet the 
peat well with the solution through every part. Then 
shovel over, mixing in the lime accurately. We have 
here then, three cords of manure, at a price as follows : 

3 cords of peat, - - - $4 50 
61 lbs. sal ammoniac, at Is., - 10 17 
61 lbs. lime, - 27 

3)$ 14 94($4 98 

It will be observed that three cords are used in these 
calculations, because the quantity of salts used is equiva- 
lent to the ammonia in a cord of dung, and that is sup- 
posed to be composted with 2 cords of loam, or meadow 
mud. Whether the estimates are correct, each one will 
determine by the value he may place on his peat and 
manure, and can apply his own estimate. When a cord 
of stable or barn-yard manure is usually estimated worth 
$4, the price of a cord of clear pure cow dung will not be 
thought high at $17. In fact, it probably, when mixed 
with the usual proportion of litter, straw, stalks, and the 
usual loss by waste of its value, would become w T orth only 
about $5. But these questions do not affect the principle 
— that from alkali and peat, as cheap a manure may be 
prepared, and as good, as from stable dung ; for let that 
be called $5 00 

then adding 2 cords of peat, 3 00 

3)$8 00 

$2 66 per cord. 

There are other sources of alkali for converting peat 
into soluble manure. Of these the chief is animal matter. 
Here we have ammonia produced. It has been actually 
proved by experiment, that a dead horse can convert 20 
tons of peat into a valuable manure, richer and more last- 
ing than stable dung ; " a barrel of alewives is equal to a 



X02 the farmer's mine. 

wagon load of peat." The next great and prolific source 
of ammonia is urine. The urine of one cow for a winter, 
mixed up as it is daily collected, with peat, is sufficient to 
manure half an acre of land with 20 loads of manure of 
the best quality, while her solid evacuations and litter, for 
the same period, afford only 17 loads, whose value is only 
about one-half that of the former. 

It need only be added, in confirmation of all that has 
been advanced, that those who have had the prudence to 
fill their yards and hog-pens with meadow mud, which has 
thus become saturated with ammonia, have in nowise lost 
their reward. If they have been satisfied with their prac- 
tice, perhaps they will be no less firm in their belief of 
success, when science offers them a reason for the faith 
that is in them. 

dr. Nichols's statements, from the essex county agricul- 
tural TRANSACTIONS, 1839-40. 

To the Committee to whom was referred the communica- 
tion of Andrew Nichols, on the suhject of Compost 
Manures, fyc. 

Gentlemen : — Persuaded of the importance of the dis- 
coveries made by Dr. Samuel L. Dana, of Lowell, and 
given to the world through the medium of the reports of 
Prof. Hitchcock and Rev. H. Colman, to the Legislature 
of Massachusetts, concerning the food of vegetables, geine, 
and the abundance of it in peat mud, in an insoluble state 
to be sure, and in that state not readily absorbed and 
digested by the roots of cultivated vegetables, but ren- 
dered soluble and very easily digestible by such plants by 
potash, wood ashes, or other alkalies, among which is 
ammonia, one of the products of fermenting animal ma- 
nures, I resolved last year to subject his theories to the 
test of experiment the present season. Accordingly I 
directed a quantity of black peat mud, procured by ditch- 
ing for the purpose of draining and reclaiming an alder 
swamp, a part of which I had some years since brought 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 103 

into a state highly productive of the cultivated grasses, to 
be thrown in heaps. During the winter I also had col- 
lected in Salem, 282 bushels of unleached wood ashes, at 
the cost of 12£ cents per bushel. These were sent up 
to my farm, a part to spread on my black soil grass lands, 
and a part to be mixed with mud for my tillage land. 
Two hundred bushels of these were spread on about six 
acres of such grass land, while it was covered with ice 
and frozen hard enough to be carted over without cutting 
it into ruts. These lands produced from one to two tons of 
good merchantable hay to the acre, nearly double the 
crop produced by the same lands last year. And one fact 
induces me to think, that being spread on the ice, as above 
mentioned, a portion of these ashes was washed away by 
the spring freshet. The fact from which I infer this is, 
that a run below, over which the w T ater coming from the 
meadow on which the largest part of these ashes were 
spread flows, produced more than double the quantity of 
hay, and that of a very superior quality to what had been 
ever known to grow on the same land before. 

Seventy bushels of these ashes, together with a quantity 
not exceeding thirty bushels of mixed coal and wood ashes 
made by my kitchen and parlor fires, were mixed with my 
barn manure, derived from one horse kept in stable during 
the winter months, one cow kept through the winter, and 
one pair of oxen employed almost daily on the road and in 
the woods, but fed in the barn one hundred days. This 
manure was never measured, but knowing how it was 
made, by the droppings and litter or bedding of these cat- 
tle, farmers can estimate the quantity with a good degree 
of correctness. These ashes and this manure were mixed 
with a sufficient quantity of the mud above mentioned by 
forking it over three times, to manure three acres of corn 
and potatoes, in hills four feet by about three feet apart, 
giving a good shovelfull to the hill. More than two- 
thirds of this w 7 as grass land, which produced last year 
about half a ton of hay to the acre, broken up by the 
plow in April. The remainder was cropped last year 



104 THE FARMERS MINE. 

without being well manured, with corn and potatoes. 
Gentlemen, you have seen the crop growing and matured, 
and I leave it to you to say whether or not the crop on 
this land would have been better had it been dressed with 
an equal quantity of pure, well rotted barn manure. For 
my own part, I believe it would not, but that this experi- 
ment proves that peat mud thus managed is equal if not 
superior to the same quantity of any other substance in 
common use as a manure among us ; which, if it be a fact, 
is a fact of immense value to the farmers of New England. 
By the knowledge and use of it, our comparatively barren 
soils may be made to equal or excel in productiveness the 
virgin prairies of the West. There were many hills in 
which the corn first planted was destroyed by worms. 
A part of these were supplied with the small Canada corn, 
a part with beans. The whole was several times cut 
down by frost. The produce was three hundred bushels 
of ears of sound corn, two tons of pumpkins and squashes, 
and some potatoes and beans. Dr. Dana, in his letter to 
Mr. Colman, dated Lowell, March 6, 1839, suggests the 
trial of a solution of geine as a manure. His directions 
for preparing it are as follows : " Boil one hundred pounds 
of dry pulverized peat with two and a half pounds of 
white ash (an article imported from England), containing 
36 to 55 per cent, of pure soda, or its equivalent in pearl- 
ash or potash, in a potash kettle, with 130 gallons of 
water ; boil for a few hours, let it settle, and dip off the 
clear liquid for use. Add the same quantity of alkali and 
water, boil and dip off as before. The dark-colored brown 
solution contains about half an ounce per gallon of vege- 
table matter. It is to be applied by watering grain crops, 
grass lands, or any other way the farmer's quick wit will 
point out. 

In the month of June, I prepared a solution of geine, 
obtained not by boiling, but by steeping the mud as taken 
from the meadow, in a weak ley in tubs. I did not weigh 
the materials, being careful only to use no more mud 
than the potash would render soluble. The proportion 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 105 

was something like this : peat 100 lbs., potash 1 lb., water 
50 gallons — stirred occasionally for about a week, when 
the dark brown solution described by Dr. Dana, was dip- 
ped off and applied to some rows of corn, a portion of a 
piece of starved barley, and a bed of onions sown on land 
not well prepared for that crop. The corn was a portion 
of a piece of manured as above mentioned. On this the 
benefit was not so obvious. The crop of barley on the 
portion watered, was more than double the quantity both 
in straw and grain to that on other portions of the field, 
the soil and treatment of which was otherwise precisely 
similar. 

The bed of onions which had been prepared by dressing 
it with a mixture of mud and ashes previous to the sow- 
ing of the seed, but which had not by harrowing been so 
completely pulverized, mixed and kneaded with the soil, 
as the cultivators of this crop deemed essential to success, 
consisted of three and a half square rods. The onions 
came up well, were well weeded, and about two bushels 
of fresh horse manure spread between the rows. In June, 
four rows were first watered with the solution of geine 
above described. In ten days the onions in these rows 
were nearly double the size of the others. All but six 
rows of the remainder were then watered. The growth 
of these soon outstripped the unwatered remainder. 

Mr. Henry Gould, who manages my farm on shares, 
and who conducted all the foregoing experiments, with- 
out thinking of the importance of leaving at least one row 
unwatered that we might better ascertain the true effect 
of this management, seeing the benefit to the parts thus 
watered, in about a week after, treated the remainder in 
the same manner. The ends of some of the rows, how- 
ever, which did not receive the watering, produced only 
very small onions, such as are usually thrown away as 
worthless by cultivators of this crop. This fact leads me 
to believe that if the onions had not been watered with 
the solution of geine, not a single bushel of a good size 
would have been produced on the whole piece. At anv 
6 



106 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

rate, it was peat or geine rendered soluble by alkali, that 
produced this large crop. 

The crop proved greater than our most sanguine ex- 
pectations. The onions were measured in the presence 
of the chairman of your committee, and making ample 
allowance for the tops which had not been stripped off, 
were adjudged equal to four bushels to the acre. In these 
experiments, 7 lbs. of potash which cost 7 cents a pound, 
bought at the retail price, were used. Potash, although 
dearer than wood ashes at 12| cents per bushel, is, I think, 
cheaper than the whitewash mentioned by Dr. Dana, and 
sufficiently cheap to make with meadow mud, a far 
cheaper manure than such as is in general used among 
our farmers. The experiment satisfies me that nothing 
better than potash and peat can be used for most if not all 
our cultivated vegetables, and the economy of watering 
with a solution of geine such as are cultivated in rows, I 
think cannot be doubted. The reason why the corn was 
not very obviously benefited, I think, must have been, 
that the portion of the roots to which it was applied, was 
already fully supplied with nutriment out of the same kind 
from the peat ashes and manure put in the hill at planting. 
For watering rows of onions or other vegetables, I should 
recommend that a cask be mounted on light wheels, so 
set that like the drill they may run each side of the row 
and drop the liquid manure, through a small tap hole or 
tub from the cask, directly upon the young plants. For 
preparing the liquor, I should recommend a cistern about 
three feet deep and as large as the object may require, 
formed of plank and laid on a bed of clay and surrounded 
by the same, in the manner that tan vats are constructed ; 
this should occupy a warm place, exposed to the sun, near 
the water, and as near as these requisites permit to the 
tillage lands of the farm. In such a cistern in warm 
weather, a solution of geine may be made in large quanti- 
ties with little labor and without the expense of fuel, as 
the heat of the sun is, I think, amply sufficient for the 
purpose. If from further experiment it should be found 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 107 

economical to water grass lands and grain crops, a large 
cask or casks should be placed on wheels and drawn by oxen 
or horse power, the liquor from the casks being at pleasure 
let into a long narrow box perforated with numerous 
small holes, which would spread the same over a strip of 
ground, some 6, 8, or 10 feet in breadth, as it is drawn 
over the field in the same manner as the streets in cities are 
watered in summer. 

Andrew Nichols. 



I certify that I measured the piece of land mentioned in 
the foregoing statement, as planted with corn, on the 21st 
of September, 1839, and found the same to contain two 
acres, three quarters, thirty-one rods. 

John W. Proctor, Surveyor. 



DR. ANDREW NICHOLS'S STATEMENT OF 1840. 7 

Gentlemen-— Having invited the attention of the 
Trustees of the Essex Agricultural Society to our con- 
tinued use of, and experiments on, fresh meadow or peat 
mud, as a manure, it is of course expected that the re- 
sult of these experiments should be laid before them. 
The compost with which we planted most of our corn and 
potatoes the present year, was composed of the same ma- 
terials, and managed in the same manner as that which 
we used last year for the same purpose. 

Four acres of corn, on the same kind of soil, were ma- 
nured in the hill with this compost, and one acre of corn 
on a more meagre portion of the same field, was manured 
in the same manner, with a compost consisting of the same 
kind of mud, half a cord of manure taken from the 
pigsty, and forty pounds of potash, second quality, dis- 
solved in water, sprinkled over and worked into the heap, 
with the fork, in the same manner that the dry ashes 



108 the Parmer's mine. 

were into the other compost. Of both kinds the same 
quantity, a common iron or steel shovel full to the hill, 
was used, and no difference in the crop which could be 
ascribed to the different manures, could be perceived. 
The hills were four by three feet apart on an average. 
In the borders and adjoining this piece of corn, one acre 
was planted with potatoes. The compost used in some 
portions of this consisted of rather a larger portion of 
coarse barn manure composed of meadow hay, corn fod- 
der, waste, &c, wet with urine and mixed with the drop- 
pings of cattle, and less meadow mud. The whole six 
acres was hoed twice only after the use of the cultivator. 
The whole amount of labor after the ground was furrowed 
and the compost prepared in heaps on the field, is stated 
by the tiller of the ground, H. L. Gould, to have been 
forty-nine days' work of one man previous to the cutting 
of the stalks. Pumpkins, squashes, and some beans were 
planted among the corn. The produce was four hundred 
and sixty bushel baskets of sound corn, eighty bushels of 
potatoes, three, cords of pumpkins, one and a half bushels 
of white beans. On one acre of the better part of the 
soil, harvested separately, there were one hundred and 
twenty baskets of corn ears, and a full proportion of the 
pumpkins. On one-eighth of an acre of Thorburn's tree 
corn treated in the same manner as the rest, the produce 
was nineteen baskets. A basket of this corn shells out 
seventeen quarts, one quart more than a basket of the or- 
dinary kinds of corn. The meal for bread and puddings 
is of a superior quality. Could we depend upon its 
ripening, for, Thorburn's assertions to the contrary not- 
withstanding, it is a late veriety of corn, (though it. 
ripened perfectly with us last season, a rather unusually 
warm and long one), farmers would do well to cultivate it 
more extensively than any other kind. 

The use of dry ashes on our black soil grass lands 
showed an increased benefit from last year. But our ex- 
periments with liquid manure disappointed us. Either 
from its not being of the requisite strength, or from the 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 109 

dryness of the season, or from our mistaking the effects 
of it last year, or from all these causes combined, the re- 
sults confidently anticipated, were not realized ; and from 
our experiments this year we have nothing to say in favor 
of its use, although we think it worthy of further experi- 
ments. On the first view of the subject, a dry season 
or a dry time might seem more favorable to the manifest- 
ations of benefit from watering plants with liquid manure, 
than wet seasons or times. But when we consider that 
when the surface of the earth is dry, the small quantity 
of liquid used would be arrested by the absorbing earth 
ere it reached the roots, and perhaps its fertilizing quali- 
ties changed, evaporated, or otherwise destroyed, bythe 
greater heat to which at such times it must be exposed — 
it is not, I think, improbable that the different effects no- 
ticed in our experiments with this substance, the two 
past years, might be owing to this cause. It is my inten- 
tion, should sufficient leisure permit, to analyze the soil 
4 cultivated and the mud used, and prepare a short essay 
on the subject of peat mud, muck, sand, &c, as manure, 
for publication in the next volume of the transactions of 
the society. Yours, respectfully, 

Andrew Nichols, 
Danvers, December 20, 1840. 



EXTRACT FROM DR. NICHOLS'S LETTER. 

Danvers, January 28, 1842. 
Dear Sir — I am sorry to say that I have no new facts to 
communicate. Nor have I anything that contradicts my 
former views on the subject of peat, as manure. We used 
it in compost on about nine acres of corn and potatoes 
last summer, one-half of which was the same land on 
which it was used the preceding season. Its effect seemed 
not to be lessened by this second trial in the same soil. 
The compost was, as formerly, composed by mixing the 
mud, barn manure, ashes or potash together in the field, in 
spring, two or three weeks before the corn was planted ; 



110 THE FARMER'S MINE* 

in a part of it, say, the manure for two acres, about 20 
lbs. of nitrate of potash were used. Wherever the nitre 
was used, worms were absent ; other parts of the field 
were more or less injured by them. This was all the 
good that we could positively ascribe to the nitre. Our crops 
were in a most flourishing condition on the morning of 
the 30th of June ; in the afternoon and evening of that day, 
a violent tempest and two showers of hail, blew down my 
barn, half my fruit trees, and prostrated and mangled the 
corn. I should have bargained readily with any one who 
would have insured me half the crop realized the preceding 
year from the same land and management. But the healing 
powers of nature and genial influences of summer suns and 
showers, in a few days restored the field again to a flour- 
ishing condition. A drought more severe than that of 
the preceding season followed in August ; and our crop 
of corn per acre was about one-fourth less than the crop 
of that year. My farmer, H. L. Gould, from his success 
with the mud which you analyzed, was strongly impressed 
with the belief that other peat mud would not prove as 
good. I requested him to make an experiment, which he 
accordingly did, with two cart loads of peat, such as 
makes good fuel, taken directly from the swamp, mixed 
with ashes, and used in the same quantity by measure, as. 
the other compost. He planted with this four rows of 
corn through the piece. And, contrary to his expecta- 
tions, if there was any difference, he acknowledged that 
these rows were better than the adjoining ones. The mud 
you analyzed, contained, you recollect, a large portion of 
granitic sand ; this peat much less sand but more water, it 
being quite spongy. The same bulk, therefore, as taken 
from the meadow and used in our experiment, would pro- 
bably have weighed, when dry, not more than one-third 
or one-fourth as much as the other. The quantity of 
geine in the shovelful of the two kinds, varies not very 
much after all. I regret that Mr. Gould did not repeat 
his experiments with the solution of geine last season. 
My farm is seven miles from my residence, and, like your- 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. Ill 

self, I turn no furrows with my own hand, nor can I over- 
see in their various stages, experiments there. I suggest, 
advise, and leave him to execute. He found himself too 
much hurried with his work, to attend to this subject at 
the proper time. In answer to your question I say — that 
the solution the second year was not applied to the same 
land, and although used in much larger quantities, it was 
not as strong as that used the past year. 
Yours, respectfully, 

Andrew Nichols. 
To S. L. Dana, M. D. 

It will be observed that about three cords of swamp 
mud and 33 bushels of ashes, have been used per acre, in 
1839, and 40 lbs. of potash in 1840. 

The number of hills is 3630 per acre. Then, calculating 
the real potash, there were given to each hill of corn, 
about half a pint of ashes, or 32 grains of alkali in 1839, 
and 45 grains in 1840. 

If three cords of swamp muck were used in 1840, about 
6 oz. of dry geine have been applied per hill — the muck 
being like pond mud. Now 45 grains of alkali and 6 oz. 
of geine, and 7 ~ of a cord of pig manure per hill, have 
here produced effects equal to guano. No new source of 
nitrogen has been opened to the corn. The effects are 
due, then, to the alkaline action on geine, and of salts 
upon silicates. The failure of the solution in the second 
year is probably owing to the formation of sulphuretted 
hydrogen. 



LETTER FROM HON. WILLIAM CLARK, JR. 

Northampton, 10th February, 1842. 
Dear Sir — The results of the few trials I have made 
with alkalies to neutralize the acidity of swamp muck, 
have not been ascertained with that precision that is 
necessary to determine conclusively which is best. I will, 
however, give you the experiments (if they deserve the 



112 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

name), as they were made, with the apparent results. 
The first was with fine well decomposed muck from the 
swamp of which you had samples, numbered 5, 6, and 7. 
In the spring of 1840, 16 lbs. of soda-ash or white ash, 
dissolved in water, were carefully mixed with two esti- 
mated tons of the muck, and the mixture applied as a top- 
dressing for corn. Two other estimated tons of the muck 
were served with eight bushels of dry wood ashes, all well 
mixed together and spread on one side of the muck that 
was served with the white ash, and further on, an equal 
quantity of fresh barn-yard manure was spread, and still 
further on, an equal quantity of compost, made of one 
part barn manure, and two parts muck, mixed and fer- 
mented before using. 

The land was a light sandy loam, on the border of a 
pine plain, and the whole field was treated alike in all 
respects, except the different kinds of manure, all of which 
were spread on the turned furrow, and harrowed in before 
planting. The corn planted where the w T ood ashes and 
muck were spread, early took precedence of all the other 
parcels, and continued apparently much the best through 
the season. Among the other parcels, no striking differ- 
ence in growth or yield was manifest. The whole field 
was harvested together, without separate weight or mea- 
surement ; and the advantage which the ashes and muck 
apparently gave over the others, rests (where no experi- 
ment should rest) on the opinion of those whose attention 
was called to it, while the corn was growing. 

A similar trial of ashes and muck, and soda and muck, 
was made the same season on grass land ; and the advan- 
tage was decidedly in favor of the soda-ash and muck, as, 
on the corn land, it was in favor of the ashes and muck. 

Why the soda-ash should act, relatively, more favorably 
upon the muck spread on grass land, than when spread 
on corn land, I am unable to determine, unless it be the 
partial shade which the grass affords to protect it from the 
direct rays of the sun, and measurably preserve its 
moisture and softness. This inference is strengthened by 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 113 

the fact that muck, treated as in the above cases- — with 
soda-ash in solution (which makes it somewhat pasty), in 
the only instance I have tried it — spread on the surface of 
an old field without a protecting crop, or subsequent har- 
rowings to cover it in the soil, became apparently sun- 
baked so hard, as to defy, for a time at least, the softening 
action of water. This hardening effect was not observed 
to take place with the muck treated with the dry ashes, or 
in the manure compost, and may have arisen from the 
insufficient quantity of alkali used in the case mentioned. 

In another case, one lb. of soda-ash, and one lb. of soft 
soap, were mixed with four bushels of muck, and all put 
in a fifty gallon tub, and the tub filled with water, and 
left to stand five or six days, with an occasional stirring ; 
at the end of that period, the dark-colored water was 
dipped off and applied to various garden plants and vege- 
tables, and the tub again filled with water, and the muck 
stirred up, and after a clay or two the water was again 
dipped off and applied as before, and the tub again filled 
with water. This process was continued for two or three 
weeks in the early part of the season, and the muck, 
though gradually wasting, without additional alkali, con- 
tinued to ferment from time to time, and yield black liquor, 
to appearance nearly as rich as at first. Rapid growth 
of the plants followed in all cases when it was applied, 
and its effect upon a lot of onions would have been ascer- 
tained with considerable accuracy, had not a " hired man" 
took it into his head that the few rows purposely left for 
comparison, were suffering by unwitting neglect, and gave 
them a " double dose," thereby equalizing the growth, and 
sacrificing the experiment to his honest notions of fair deal- 
ing, which required that all should be "treated alike. In 
another case, a muck compost dressing, formed by pre- 
viously slacking quick lime with a strong brine of com- 
mon salt, to disengage the acid of the salt, that its soda 
might act on the muck when in contact, was applied as a 
top-dressing for corn, without any perceptible effect, per- 
haps for want of skill in compounding. 
6* 



114 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

Facts abundantly testify to the fertilizing properties of 
swamp muck and peat, when brought to a right state, and 
the subject of your inquiry perhaps yields to no other, at 
the present time, in point of importance to our good old 
Commonwealth. Taking your estimate of the weight of 
fresh dug muck or peat, and Professor Hitchcock's esti- 
mate of the quantity in the state, and the saving of one 
cent per ton, in the expense of neutralizing its acidity, 
and fitting it for use in agriculture, when applied to all our 
swamp muck and peat, will amount to an aggregate sav- 
ing to the industry of the Commonwealth, of over five and 
a half millions of dollars. Is there a reasonable doubt 
that more than ten times this one per cent, per ton will be 
saved over any present process, when chemistry has shed 
its full light on the subject ? 

The magnitude and importance of a small saving in 
this matter, must certainly have been overlooked by some 
who have given advice on the subject of making muck 
compost. Respectfully, 

Your most ob't serv't, 

William Clark, Jr. 

S. L. Dana, M. D., Lowell, Mass. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

manures produced by marine plants. 

These plants, such as the fucuses, the cdgo, and the 
coriferves, are still more in request than the others 
wherever they can be obtained without too great expense. 
They contain in abundance a mucilaginous substance easi- 
ly separable, and a quantity of sea salt which doubtless 
increases their fertilizing properties. 

In many cantons they are an important source of fer- 
tility j and when they are judiciously employed they never 



MANURES PRODUCED BY MARINE PLANTS. 115 

fail to enrich the districts upon the sea-coast, whether the 
herbs are cut upon the rocks, or are washed up upon the 
shore. However, the effects are far from being as dura- 
ble as those of dung, for they are felt only upon one or 
two crops. 

Marine plants, applied to arable soils, cannot be spread 
and ploughed in too soon after they are collected. If this 
cannot be done immediately, on account of the season or 
any other cause, they should be made into composts with 
earth, long; dung, or lime. 

By spreading these plants upon old pastures not only 
is the quantity of the grass increased but its quality is 
improved. Horned cattle as well as sheep eat it with 
more avidity, flourish better and fatten more readily. This 
substance does not suit so well as dung for oats or tur- 
nips ; but it succeeds perfectly well with barley. When 
it is applied to the young growth of clover after the mow- 
ing it destroys it. It can be profitably mixed with the 
dung of the farm-yard. We use to the acre one-third 
more, in weight, of sea-weed than of dung. 

This manure presents various special advantages: it 
does not contain the seeds of weeds ; it is rapidly decom- 
posed ; it is immediately useful to plants without requiring 
a long process of preparation. By its aid the cultivator 
can sow more frequently grains or green crops, and thus 
increase his quantity of dung. Its good effects cannot be 
called in question, and no objection can be made to its 
use except perhaps that the grain produced is of an infe- 
rior quality. — Agriculture, practical and theoretical, by 
Sir John Sinclair. 

In Normandy and Brittany marine plants have been 
used from time immemorial ; the wrack of the rocks is pre- 
ferred, that is to say that which is pulled up at low tide, 
to the stranded wrack, which, however, evidently contains 
much more animal matter. The first buried immediately 
on coming from the sea decomposes more rapidly than the 
other. It is employed by itself, while the weeds which 
are drifted upon the shore are ordinarily used only as 
litter. 



11(3 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

Quite frequently sea-weed is mixed with other manures ; 
sometimes it is left to rot by itself, or is stratified with 
earth to be transformed into compost. In Italy these 
methods appear to be preferred to an immediate burial, 
which I believe is preferred, and I think justly, in other 
places. In Ancona hardly any other manure is known 
than the alga and the zostera reduced to a mould by 
natural fermentation in a covered place. At other points 
of the Adriatic coast the weeds are spread upon the roads, 
and, when they have been partially triturated there, 
mixed with the urine, the excrements of animals, and the 
dust of the road, they are added to the common pile of 
other manures. 

The use of wrack or fucus upon the coasts of France 
has been considered so important, that an ordinance has 
fixed the time of their harvest between the full moon of 
March and that of April, because at that period they have 
shed their seed and are not covered with the spawn of 
fish. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ANIMAL MANURES. 

Animals furnish the strongest manures : the muscular 
flesh, the blood, the horn, the remains of skin and tendons, 
the wool, the silk, the fecal matter, the bones, and some 
preparations of these substances, matters of great produc- 
tion in the arts, such as animal black, hold the first rank 
in this respect. They can be sent to considerable distan- 
ces, and are an indispensable complement to the vegetable 
and stable manures. Hence we can say that animal 
remains and excrements present the richest means of fer- 
tilizing the soil. We shall therefore think it our duty to 
dwell at some length upon this broad foundation upon 



ANIMAL MAMUKES. 117 

which repose the interests of agriculture, the prosperity of 
nations, and even, as we shall soon see, the health of 
great cities. 

Of some substances Utile used. 

No certain experiment authorizes us to consider the 
fatty substances as susceptible of serving directly as 
manures. 

The tendons are generally too difficult of division to 
form powdered manures ; they can only be cut in small 
pieces. 

Hoofs, spurs, nails, horns.— These remains of animals 
form one of the richest of azotized manures ; but their 
strong cohesion, and the difficulty of reducing them to 
powder, as well as often their high price, exactly in pro- 
portion to their size and want of color, cause the greater 
part of them to be reserved for the use of the manufactu- 
rer of toys. Those which are defective or too small are 
sold to the manufacturers of Prussian blue ; in short, the 
horn raspings of the manufacturer are presented as a 
manure in the most favorable condition. It is best to 
cover them with earth near the plants, so that the wind 
may not displace them. This manure, at a high price, 
has been used with success, as well as those hereafter 
mentioned, for olive and mulberry trees and vines. 

Feathers, bristles, hair, wadding of wool and of silk. — 
Imperfect feathers and quills, and all such as cannot serve 
either for beds or for writing or for pencil tubes, as well 
as horse-hair, bristles, hair, wadding, of wool or of silk, 
which cannot be turned to better account in saddlery, 
upholstery, or weaving, &c, will be easily turned to an 
excellent manure, by putting them in trenches dug near 
the plants and covered with earth. All these substances, 
as well as those comprised in the preceding paragraph, 
however mechanically divided, still offer too great resist- 
ance to decomposition to follow the progress of vegeta- 
tion and realize their greatest effect ; we shall presently 
see that it is the same with another substance, bones, while 



118 

the flesh, the blood, and the fecal matter, which are per- 
haps too readily decomposable, can be put into the con- 
ditions the most favorable to realize their greatest use- 
ful effect. 

The flesh of dead animals, roasted and divided as is de- 
scribed in the book on the Agricultural Arts, and which 
one might decide not to use for feeding animals, would 
form one of the best of manures (and even better than 
any of those prepared as we shall presently describe). 
To make use of it, mix it with about six times its weight 
of field earth, as intimately as possible, in order to spread 
it in a small quantity and very evenly upon the land 
sowed with grain. This manure placed by hand at the 
roots of most of the garden and field vegetables, of vines, 
potatoes, beets, &c, without being in immediate contact 
with the stalk, stimulates the vegetation in a remarkable 
manner. It can also be sown like seed, broad-cast, and 
fertilizes the land in an extraordinary manner. Mixed 
with twice its bulk of powdered earth, its application 
becomes extremely easy, and fifteen hundred pounds of 
this mixture suffice to manure an acre. We have satis- 
fied ourselves by comparative trials that this substance is 
sensibly preferable to dry blood in powder. 

In the language of Mr. Gaylord, in his Prize Essay on 
Manure — All animal products capable of putrefaction, can 
be converted into manures ; fish, flesh, gristle, sinews, skin, 
horns, hair, wool, and indeed all animal solids or fluids are 
of this character. The man who allows his dead animals 
to putrefy, and waste away above ground, is guilty of 
great improvidence ; and converts what might be made a 
valuable manure into a decided nuisance. A dead horse, 
covered with earth or vegetable mould, mixed with a little 
lime or gypsum, will, when decayed and converted into 
manure and spread on the soil, add to the value of the 
wheat or corn grown, not enough perhaps to buy a valua- 
ble new one, but not unfrequently more than the worth of 
the original animal. A more disgusting sight can scarcely 
be imagined, than to see the fences and trees around a 



ANIMAL MANURES. 119 

farmer's yard dressed out with dead lambs or other defunct 
animals in the spring season. All such should be buried 
at once, and thus made available in other forms. 

Fish 

Of the substances named above, fish is the one most com- 
monly used as a manure. In the vicinity of the sea, 
large quantities of fish are annually used in enriching the 
soil. This is particularly the case on Long Island and in 
Rhode Island. They are sometimes spread broadcast on 
the earth and plowed in ; at other times deposited in the 
hills of corn ; sometimes spread over the meadows after 
the crop is mowed, and allowed to putrefy in the 
open air. The stench, where the putrefaction goes on in 
the open air, is intolerable ; and can only be endured by 
those whose olfactories have been accustomed to the nui- 
sance. This is a most wasteful practice, and should long 
ago have been abandoned. Treated in this way, but a 
small part of the actual value of the fish is realized; and 
it is not to be wondered at, that where the methods of 
using this manure are so different, widely different ideas of 
its value should be entertained. Fish should never be 
used fresh, or thrown at once upon the soil. The true 
way of preparing them as manure, is to make them into 
compost, by placing them in layers with muck, rock weed, 
peat, or even common loam, to putrefy. Where the soil 
is heavy or inclining to clay, where the compost is to be 
used, common shore sand, containing as it does large quan- 
tities of particles of carbonate of lime, will be found use- 
ful as a composting ingredient with the fish. When the 
fish are decayed or putrefied, the mass should be dug over, 
the parts thoroughly mixed, and if much ammonia or 
offensive gas is liberated, a covering of earth should be 
given, and the mass be allowed further to ferment before 
using. In this way, fish never fail of being a valuable 
manure. Rock weed, eel grass, or in short any of those 
vegetable or animal matters that abound on the sea shore, 
may be advantageously used in the preparation of these 
composts. 



120 THE FARMER'S MLNE. 

Refuse of factories. 
There are many manufactories, particularly those of 
skins, furs and wool, where large quantities of manures of 
the most powerful kind are annually suffered to go to 
waste, though to a much less extent than formerly. The 
refuse of such establishments, now frequently considered, 
and justly as now treated, a nuisance, may, by simple ap- 
plication to the soil, or still better by being made into 
compost, be used as the best of fertilizers. One of the 
best farmers and most successful breeders of our country 
was driven into the business of agriculture in self-defence 
as it were. He was an extensive manufacturer, and the 
difficulty of disposing of the refuse and waste of the esta- 
blishment, compelled him to purchase a farm in the vicinity 
of the city, in enriching which, these matters have been 
most successfully employed. Those farmers who formerly 
could not be induced to receive such refuse materials as a 
gift, would now, after the proof they have seen of their 
value, be happy to purchase them at a liberal price. The 
furrier, the tanner, the morocco manufacturer, combmaker, 
&c, &c, are all dealing in materials of the utmost value, 
when applied to the soil as manure ; and the farmer little 
understands his true interests, who, living in the vicinity of 
any of these, does not avail himself of these refuse mat- 
ters to the utmost extent permitted. 

Manure of wool. 
Perhaps there is no substance more rich in matters valu- 
able as manures, than the washings and refuse of woollen 
factories. Chaptal was one of the first to call attention to 
this matter, and the instances he gave of their fertilizing 
power were of the most convincing kind. It is but very 
lately, however, that any attempts have been made in this 
country to render the refuse of our factories available. All 
remember, when around every factory and every clothier's 
shop in the country, piles of refuse wool, clippings, pick- 
ings of cards, and sweepings, accumulated in masses, never 
thought of as of value, but considered as matter of which 



ANIMAL MANURES* 121 

the owners would most happily be quit. The method of 
disposing of them, when they could no longer be tolerated, 
was to throw them into the river; to apply them to the 
garden or farm was not once thought of. Not long since, 
in one of our villages, I noticed a garden, the vegetables 
of which had a luxuriance forming a striking contrast to 
others near them, and the cause of the difference w T as 
asked. " It is all owing to the refuse of that clothier's and 
carder's shop," was the reply. " I saw in the Cultivator 
a notice of the value of such manures, and the owner of 
the shops gladly availed himself of my offer to remove it 
at my own expense. I gave my garden a good dressing, 
and as this is the second year, you may judge of the value 
of the material as a manure. It is probably the last I 
shall obtain, however," he added, " as the mill owners, 
after seeing its effect on my garden, are now as anxious 
\o save this refuse matter as they were before to get rid 
...fit." The oily or sweaty matter on unwashed wool, is 
). soapy substance having a base of potash, with an 
excess of oily matter, with slight traces of the carbonate 
and muriate of potash, all valuable as manures ; and as 
all are easily soluble in w r ater, such water should never be 
lost. A wool merchant at Montpelier had his washing 
house in the midst of a field, the greater part of which he 
had, by the use of this wash, with which he watered his 
plants, transformed into a fine garden. The experiments 
made by Judge Buel and by Mr. Bement, with hog's 
bristles and horn shavings, were conclusive as to the 
value of these substances for manures. In short, as all 
substances of this nature are nearly pure gelatine, with a 
slight addition of the phosphates of lime, it is evident 
their decay must furnish an abundant supply of ammonia 
to plants, and therefore render them valuable as a manure. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ANIMAL OFFALS. 

Of dried blood. 

Blood. — This liquid, however, (especially when it has 
been subjected to boiling, which, by coagulating it, retards 
its decomposition in the ground), is found so useful to the 
growth of sugar canes, that it has been lately sent from 
Paris at a cost of two dollars the one hundred pounds to 
the colonies, where it arrives, costing four dollars. Blood, 
in whatever state it is found, and from whatever animal it 
comes, offers, therefore, to the inhabitants of the country a 
valuable resource for manure, and, already, in this view, 
it has formed the base of an important speculation in 
Paris. 

The following is one of the simplest modes of employ- 
ing it. Some earth free from clods is dried in the oven, 
after baking; bread, care being; taken to stir it from time to 
time with a rake ; it requires about four or five times as 
much as there is of liquid blood ; the hot earth is brought 
to the front of the oven, and is sprinkled with the blood 
to be preserved, while turned over and over with the 
shovel ; the mixture is then baked over, and stirred with 
the rake till the desiccation is complete. It can then be 
put up in old barrels or boxes, sheltered from the rain, to 
be used w T hen needed. The earth in this preparation is 
useful especially to present the blood in a suitable state of 
division, and to render its decomposition slower and more 
regular. We can know, moreover, what surface these 
mixtures will cover as manure, by recollecting that three 
thousand pounds of liquid blood give seven hundred and 
fifty pounds of blood coagulated and dried, which is suffi- 



ANIMAL OFFALS 123 

went to manure an acre. One hundred pounds of blood 
in this state equal as a manure three hundred pounds of 
broken bones, or three loads of good horse-dung, weigh- 
ing together seven thousand and two hundred pounds. It 
is a manure by far superior to those known and desig- 
nated by the names of poudrette, oil cakes, &c. ; it is 
inferior only to the dried and powdered flesh. 

Of the entrails, fyc. 

All the internal parts of animals, such as the liver, 
lungs, brain, heart, and the offal of the entrails, should be 
cut or hashed as fine as possible and then mixed along 
with the emptyings of the intestines, with earth thoroughly 
dried, the latter in the proportion of six times the bulk 
of the animal matters. When this composition has been 
well worked over with the shovel it is spread at the rate 
of five tons to the acre. 

This manure gives excellent results and is particularly 
favorable to wheat crops. If it cannot be spread imme- 
diately after its preparation, it must be preserved in a 
trench or some other cool place, or at any rate in the 
shade and covered with earth. 

Bones: explanation of the various results of their use in 

agriculture. 

None of the hard substances, the remains of animal 
organization, offers more remarkable examples of various 
effects in its action as a manure, than the bones in differ- 
ent states. We find in the numerous agricultural 
memoirs on the subject the most singular problems which 
practice could leave to be solved. 

The bones which are found in masses of any considera- 
ble importance at the disposal of agriculturists and specu- 
lators, are presented in the following different forms : 
Fresh, such as have been taken from animals recently 
slaughtered, more or less broken, or whole : in each of these 
three states, their decomposition is almost always too slow, 
stimulated though it be by the well known influences of 



124 the farmer's mine, 

air, heat and moisture ; but, all things being equal exter- 
nally, enormous differences have been observed, and which 
seemed inexplicable, in the duration of the decomposition* 
and consequently in the useful effect produced in a given 
time. 

Some particular experiments have led me to discover 
the cause of these apparent anomalies. Bones contain in 
their cellular parts and in various cavities, a fat sub- 
stance, secreted by itself, of more or less consistence. 
This substance is free in the adipose tissue of all the 
crevices which conceal it, for it suffices to open a passage 
for it by cutting the bones and plunging them in hot 
water, to bring it out and see it swimming upon the sur* 
face of the liquid. The average proportion which can be 
obtained from the various bones of the butcher is about *01, 
although the very spongy parts which enclose the most, 
contain even *05. 

The proportion of fat matter extracted by this process 
diminishes gradually as the bones are dried ; it becomes 
almost nothing when the desiccation takes place at a 
high temperature, either in the sun or by a stove. It 
appears, indeed, that as fast as the water which filled the 
interstices of the bone has evaporated^ the grease lique- 
fied by the heat has taken its place. One of the effects of 
this penetration has been to impregnate the net-work 
which encloses the phosphate and the carbonate of lime. 
This net-work already with difficulty decomposed on 
account of its cohesion and insolubility, protected more- 
over by inorganic substances interposed, becomes still 
less alterable when the greasy matter not only impreg- 
nates and defends it from the penetration of water, but, 
becoming gradually acidified, forms with the lime a cal- 
careous soap, which M. d'Arcet has shown to be unde- 
composable under atmospheric influence. 

Bones in this nearly undecomposable state should, of 
course, exert but an insensible action as a manure, at 
least, unless very minutely divided. This also confirms 
and explains the practical remark, that although spread 



OF DRIED BLOOD. 125 

upon the ground for four years these bones scarcely lost 
0.08 of their weight, while, when recently taken from 
animals and deprived of nearly all their grease by boiling- 
water, they readily permit the decomposition of their 
organic net-work and lose in the same time from twenty- 
five to thirty per cent of their weight. 

Let us notice three other curious and apparently singu- 
lar results of the use of bones treated with steam. 

The broken bones from which gelatine has been 
obtained by the action of water and heat, in various pro- 
cesses, form a residuum which has often been tried as a 
manure. In some experiments a number of cultivators 
have obtained from these residuums, the first year, more 
beneficial effects than from bones themselves. In others, 
an action almost equal to that of bones, but less durable, 
was observed. More generally, however, little or no 
favorable influence upon vegetation was obtained. A 
great number of analyses, attentively examined, have ena»- 
bled me to perceive the different conditions under which 
this residuum, apparently the same, produced three sets of 
phenomena so distinct. 

Bones treated by the process in question leave a varia- 
ble residuum ; I have sometimes met with it containing 
from eighty to ninety-five per cent, of the azotic, organic, 
decomposable matter of the bones, sometimes containing 
from twenty -five to thirty-three, but more usually one or 
two per cent. ; finally, it sometimes contains scarcely a 
few thousandths. The following are the causes and 
effects of these various proportions : The temperature is 
almost always high in these operations, to the degree of 
rendering the greatest part of the net-work soluble, and 
consequently the bones are disaggregated and easily brok- 
en. But, although soluble, the organic alterable matter 
can still be held in the interstices, either because the wash- 
ings proper to draw it out have been operated insuffi- 
ciently, or ill-directed ; or further, because the steam may 
have been chiefly condensed upon the sides of the digest- 
ers. This matter soluble in the proportion of 0.8 or 0.9 



126 the farmer's mine. 

of the contents of the bones, will act more rapidly as a 
manure, since its dissolution and decomposition will be 
more rapid under the same influences ; but, instead of be- 
ing prolonged four or five years, its action will be almost 
exhausted in one season — practice has always confirmed 
this deduction of theory. A washing better conducted 
but incomplete, easily accounts for the presence and solu- 
bility of from 0.25 to 0.33 of gelatinous matter in the re- 
siduum ; whence, also, we deduce the prompt action, but 
less and less durable effect than in the preceding case. As 
to the reduction of 0.01 or 0.02 at the most in the propor- 
tion of the azotic decomposable substance,* it evidently 
makes the residuum inefficacious as a manure. But this 
state of the case results, as I have proved, from one of the 
two following circumstances or their concurrence : 

When the bones operated upon in the large way have 
been cut only in the cellular parts and the grease extract- 
ed, the division not being sufficiently thorough, the wash- 
ing or maceration not being sufficient, only from thirteen 
to fifteen per cent, of dry gelatine is obtained ; there 
should, therefore, remain about fifteen per cent, of fibrous 
tissue, or the products of its decomposition; but these 
dregs are scarcely thrown into a heap before a brisk fer- 
mentation is developed and ammonincal vapors are disen- 
gaged ; thus, the greatest part of the organic matter dis- 
appears. 

The second circumstance which equally produces a very 
poor residuum is when a well-conducted treatment is 
applied to bones sufficiently divided, and finally, when 
they are exhausted by continued maceration, as in the 
processes of the hospitals. 

We must not therefore generally expect to find in the 
manufactories of glue any but impoverished residuums and 
valueless as manures. 

Hence the use of them has been abandoned by those 

* There always remains besides a variable proportion of from 0.03 
to 0.08 of calcareous soap, but which is without influence upon vege- 
tation. 



OF DRIED BLOOD. 127 

cultivators even who at first obtained beneficial results ; 
the differences, however, are now easily explained, and a 
simple analysis, consisting in the exhaustion by boiling* 
water of a portion dried and powdered, will suffice to test 
them, a priori ; then drying and weighing anew the pow T - 
dered exhausted substance we shall find how much the 
boiling water has diminished the total weight, and conse- 
quently the proportion of soluble organic matter, all the 
rest being almost entirely inert as a manure, and able to 
act only as a calcareous amendment. 

The application of bones to agriculture. — In their natural 
state bones reduced to powder are an excellent manure, 
which is spread in the average proportion of fifteen hun- 
dred pounds to the acre, and the influence of which is felt 
in a diminishing degree from three to five successive years 
according to the soil and the seasons ; all sorts of bones 
moreover are fit for this application, when the distance or 
want of communications does not permit the better part to 
be used for the arts which we shall speak of in a future 
division of the work f and when, moreover, a machine 
can be procured to grind them, which is quite expensive 
in its first cost and requires a large expenditure of motive 
power. 

However, in the absence of this machine, we shall often 
employ with advantage, especially in the intervals of field 
labor, the processes of breaking by hand, first cleaving 
the bones with an axe and then powdering them with a 
heavy mallet or sledge. 

I have remarked that it is much easier to break bones 
when thoroughly dried and heated than when fresh ; it 
will be best therefore to put them in the oven immediately 
after baking bread, and break them afterwards while they 
are warm. 



* The bones used for the manufacture of animal black are not lost 
for agriculture, for we shall see that after having, in the state of pow- 
dered charcoal, served to refine sugar, they conceal a portion of 
coagulated blood, which conduces to render their effect as a manure 
very remarkable. 



128 the farmer's mine, 

In France broken bones are used as a manure in the 
department of Puy de Dome ; in Germany the practice is 
very extensive. Twelve bushels are there substituted for 
thirty-five loads of dung for an acre. But the English 
have applied this manure most in the large way. They 
derive from Russia and India considerable quantities of 
bones, besides a large part of those which result from their 
own large consumption of meat. A bushel of coarsely 
powdered bones costs the cultivators about one dollar and 
thirty cents ; they use from fifteen to forty-five bushels to 
the acre ; this manuring prolongs its effect during ten to 
twenty-five years, and enormously increases all the crops, 
especially those of grass and of turnips. It has been 
observed that a mixture of wood ashes of equal bulk, or 
two or three per cent of saltpetre, renders this manure still 
more efficacious. 

Bones in powder can be placed in the trenches with 
potatoes, or sown upon seed before passing the harrow or 
roller which covers it with earth. 

It is sometimes preferred to mix them with the earth 
previously plowed and harrowed by passing the harrow 
and roller over them a second time. 

If the bones were in fine powder, they could with 
advantage be placed upon the transplanted plants, and 
be covered up in closing the hole of the planter. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CHARCOAL AND SOOT. 

Charcoal has of late attracted considerable attention 
as a fertilizer. We find the following interesting experi- 
ments and observations on the action of charcoal from 
wood on vegetation, by Edward Lucas, as an appendix to 
Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry. 

" In a division of a low hothouse in the botanical garden 
at Munich, a bed was set apart for young tropical plants ; 
but instead of being filled with tan, as is usually the case, 
it was filled with the powder of charcoal, (a material 
which could be easily procured), the large pieces of char- 
coal having been previously separated by means of a sieve. 
The heat was conducted by means of a tube of white iron 
into a hollow space in this bed, and distributed a gentle 
warmth, such as tan communicates when in a state of fer- 
mentation. The plants placed in this bed of charcoal 
quickly vegetated, and acquired a healthy appearance. 
Now, as is always the case in such beds, the roots of many 
of the plants penetrated through the holes in the bottoms 
of the pots, and then spread themselves out ; but these 
plants evidently surpassed in vigor and general luxuriance 
plants grown in the common way — for example, in tan. 
Several of them, of which I shall only specify the beauti- 
ful Thunbergia alata, and the genus Peireskice, throve 
quite astonishingly ; the blossoms of the former were so 
rich, that all who saw it affirmed, they had never before 
seen such a specimen. It produced also a number of seeds 
without any artificial aid, while, in most cases, it is neces- 
sary to apply the pollen by the hand. The Peireskice. 
grew so vigorously, that the P. aculeata produced shoots 
7 



130 THE FARMER S MINE. 

several ells in length, and the P. grandifolia acquired 
leaves of a foot in length. These facts, as well as the 
quick germination of the seeds which had been scattered 
spontaneously, and the abundant appearance of young 
Filices, naturally attracted my attention, and I was gra- 
dually led to a series of experiments, the results of which 
may not be uninteresting ; for, besides being of practical 
use in the cultivation of most plants, they demonstrate also 
several facts of importance to physiology. The first expe- 
riment which naturally suggested itself was, to mix a cer- 
tain proportion of charcoal with the earth in which differ- 
ent plants grew, and to increase its quantity according as 
the advantage of the method was perceived. An addition 
of two-thirds charcoal, for example, to vegetable mould, 
appeared to answer excellently for the Gesneria and Glox- 
inia, and also for the tropical Aroidece with tuberous roots. 
The first two soon excited the attention of connoisseurs, by 
the great beauty of all their parts and their general appear- 
ance. They surpassed very quickly those cultivated in the 
common way, both in the thickness of their stems and dark 
color of their leaves ; their blossoms were beautiful, and 
their vegetation lasted much longer than usual, so much 
so, that, in the middle of November, when other plants of 
the same kinds were dead, these were quite fresh, and 
partly in bloom. Aroidece took root very rapidly, and 
their leaves surpassed much in size the leaves of those not 
so treated ; the species which are reared as ornamental 
plants, on account of the beautiful coloring of their leaves, 
(I mean such as the Caladium bicolor, Pictum, Puerile, 
&c), were particularly remarked for the liveliness of their 
tints ; and it happened here also, that the period of their 
vegetation was unusually long. A cactus, planted in a 
mixture of equal parts of charcoal and earth, throve pro- 
gressively, and attained double its former size in the space 
of a few weeks. The use of the charcoal was very advan- 
ageous with several of the BromeliacecB and Liliacece, 
with the Citrus and Begonia also, and even with the Pal- 
ma. The same advantage was found in the case of almost 



CHARCOAL AND SOOT. 131 

all those plants for which sand is used, in order to keep 
the earth porous, when charcoal was mixed with the soil 
instead of the sand ; the vegetation was always rendered 
stronger and more vigorous. 

" At the same time that these experiments were per- 
formed with mixtures of charcoal with different soils, the 
charcoal was also used free from any addition, and in this 
case the best results were obtained. Cuts of plants from 
different genera took root in it well and quickly ; I men- 
tion here only the Euphorbia fastuosa and fulgens, which 
took root in ten days ; Pandanus utilis in three months, 
P. Amaryllifolius, Chamcedorea elatior in four weeks, Pi- 
per nigrum. Begonia, Ficus, Cecropia, Chiococca, Buddleya, 
Hakea, Phyllanthus, Capparis, Laurus, Stifftia, Jacquinia, 
Mimosa, Cactus, in from eight to ten days ; and several 
others, amounting to forty species, including Ilex and many 
others. Leaves, and pieces of leaves, and even pedunculi f 
or petioles, took root and in part budded in pure charcoal. 
Among others we may mention the foliola of several of 
the CycadecB as having taken root, as also did parts of the 
leaves of the Begonia Telfairice and Jacaranda brasilien- 
sis ; leaves of the Euphorbia fastuosa, Oxalis Barrilieri, 
Ficus, Cyclamen, Polyanthes, Mesembryanthemum ; also 
the delicate leaves of the Lophospermum and Martynia, 
pieces of a leaf of the Agave Americana ; tufts of Pinus, 
&c. ; and all without the aid of a previously formed bud. 

" Pure charcoal acts excellently as a means of curing 
unhealthy plants. A Dorianthes excelsa, for example, 
which had been drooping for three years, was rendered 
completely healthy in a very short time by this means. 
An orange tree, which had the very common disease, in 
which the leaves become yellow, acquired, within four 
weeks, its healthy green color, when the upper surface of 
the earth was removed from the pot in which it was con- 
tained, and a ring of charcoal, of an inch in thickness, 
strewed in its place around the periphery of the pot. The 
same was the case with the Gardenia. 

" I should be led too far were I to state all the results 



132 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

of the experiments which I have made with charcoal. The 
object of this paper is merely to show the general effect 
exercised by this substance on vegetation ; but the reader 
who takes particular interest in the subject will find more 
extensive observations in the ' Allgemeine Deutsche Garten 
zeitung ' of Otto and Dietrich, in Berlin ; or Loudon's 
Gardener's Magazine for March, 1841. 

" The charcoal employed in these experiments was the 
dust-like powder of charcoal from firs and pines, such as 
is used in the forges of blacksmiths, and may be easily pro- 
cured in any quantity. It was found to have most effect 
when allowed to lie during the winter exposed to the ac- 
tion of the air. In order to ascertain the effects of differ- 
ent kinds of charcoal, experiments were also made upon 
that obtained from the hard woods and peat, and also upon 
animal charcoal, although I foresaw the probability that 
none of these would answer so well as that of pine- wood, 
both on account of its porosity and the ease with which it 
is decomposed.* 

" It is superfluous to remark, that in treating plants in 
the manner here described, they must be plentifully sup- 
plied with water, since the air having such free access 
penetrates and dries the roots, so that, unless this precau- 
tion is taken, the failure of all such experiments is una- 
voidable. 

" The action of charcoal consists primarily in its pre- 
serving the parts of the plants with which it is in contact 
— whether they be roots, branches, leaves, or pieces of 
leaves — unchanged in their vital power for a long space 
of time, so that the plant obtains time to develope the or- 
gans which are necessary for its further support and pro- 
pagation. There can scarcely be a doubt also that the 
charcoal undergoes decomposition; for after being used 
five to six years it becomes a coaly earth ; and if this is 

* M. Lucas has recently repeated these experiments, and found that 
the animal charcoal obtained by the calcination of bones possesses a 
decided advantage over all other kinds of charcoal, which he subjected 
to experiment. — Licbig's dnnalen, Band xxxix. Heft 1, S. 127. 



CHARCOAL AND SOOT. 133 

the case, it must yield carbon, or carbonic oxide, abun- 
dantly to the plants growing in it, and thus afford the prin- 
cipal substance necessary for the nutrition of vegetables.* 
In what other manner indeed can we explain the deep 
green color and great luxuriance of the leaves and every 
part of the plants, which can be obtained in no other kind 
of soil, according to the opinion of men well qualified to 
judge ? It exercises likewise a favorable influence by de- 
composing and absorbing the matters excreted by the 
roots, so as to keep the soil free from the putrefying sub- 
stances which are often the cause of the death of the spon- 
gioid. Its porosity, as well as the power which it pos- 
sesses of absorbing water with rapidity, and, after its sat- 
uration, of allowing all other water to sink through it, are 
causes also of its favorable effects. These experiments 
show what a close affinity the component parts of charcoal 
have to all plants, for every experiment was crowned with 
success, although plants belonging to a great many differ- 
ent families were subjected to trial." (Buchner's Reper- 
torium, ii. Reihe, xix. Bd. S. 38.) 

We make a further extract on this subject, from Vol. I. 
of the American Agriculturist, by Dr. Raymond. 

From an article on Dr. Liebig's Organic Chemistry ap- 
plied to Agriculture, in the April number of the North 
American Review, it appears that the most valuable pro- 
perty of a soil, is that of absorbing and giving off those 
vapors and gases that constitute so considerable a portion 
of the food of plants. Reflecting on this fact, it occurred 
to me, that charcoal might prove a most valuable manure ; 
from its well known capacity of absorbing vapors, gases, 

* As some misconception has arisen regarding this explanation of 
the action of charcoal upon vegetation, and an idea propagated that 
the introduction of these opinions into this work incorporated them 
with those of Liebig, it is necessary to state that they are merely in- 
serted here as part of the papers of M. Lucas. The true explanation 
is, that charcoal possesses the power of absorbing carbonic acid and 
ammonia from the atmosphere, which serve for the nourishment of 
plants. — Ed. 



134 the farmer's mine. 

and saline solutions, and under certain circumstances giving 
them out. 

The ladies make use of charcoal in their flower-pots, 
from an experience of these results. At this time I did 
not know of its being used on a large scale. I communi- 
cated the idea to Mr. Phineas Sargent, and he remarked 
he did not know that it had been used as a manure ; but 
he had often observed the charcoal hearths were more pro- 
ductive than the surrounding land. I made further inqui- 
ries of Mr. A. B. Allen on the same point, and he had the 
kindness to furnish me Mr. J. H. Hepburn's valuable paper 
" Charcoal as a Manure," published in the Trans, of the 
Ag. Soc. of N. Y., p. 298, 1842. I was not a little 
gratified to find my speculations sustained by so accurate 
an observer. 

As Mr. H. declined to enter into the chemical character 
of charcoal, I propose to supply that portion of the sub- 
ject compiled from such writers as are within my reach. 
From Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry, article Gas, we 
extract : " Of all solid bodies, charcoal is the most re- 
markable in its action on the gases. In M. De Saussure's 
experiment, the red hot charcoal was plunged under mer- 
cury, and introduced after it had become cool into the gas 
to be absorbed without ever coming into contact with the 
atmospherical air. 

" One volume of charcoal made from boxwood 

absorbed of ammonia, - - 90 volumes. 
Muriatic acid gas, - - - 85 
Sulphurous acid - - - - 55 
Sulphuretted hydrogen, - - 55 
Nitrous oxide, - - - - 40 
Carbonic acid, - - - - 35 
Olefiant, ----- 35 
Carbonic oxide, - 9*42 

Oxygen, ----- 9-25 
Nitrogen, ----- 7*5 
Gas from moist charcoal, - 5*0 " 

Hydrogen, - 1-75 " 



u 



a 



CHARCOAL AND SOOT. 135 

" The absorption was not increased by allowing the 
charcoal to remain in contact with the gases after 24 hours, 
with the exception of oxygen, which goes on condensing 
for years in consequence of the slow formation and absorp- 
tion of carbonic acid gas. If the charcoal be moistened, 
the absorption of all those gases that have not a strong 
affinity for water is diminished. Thus boxwood charcoal, 
cooled under mercury, and drenched in water, is capable 
of absorbing only fifteen volumes of carbonic acid gas ; 
although before being moistened, it could absorb thirty- 
five volumes of the same gas. 

" Dry charcoal saturated with any gas, gives out, on 
immersion in water, a quantity corresponding to the dimi- 
nution of its absorbing power. When a piece of charcoal 
which is saturated with either oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 
or carbonic acid gas, is put into another gas, it allows a 
portion of the first to escape, in order to absorb into its 
pores a portion of the second gas." 

Charcoal, when reduced to powder, will absorb but half 
the quantity of gas that it would when in the lump. 

The advantage of this article over every other that has 
been used as a manure is, that what is not actually con- 
sumed or washed away, is retained on the soil, and will 
continue to absorb and give off the vapors, gases, and sa- 
line solutions for an unlimited period. It would therefore 
be an experiment worthy of trial by our western agricul- 
turists, to make their wood into charcoal and spread it on 
the soil, rather than reduce it to ashes, which at most will 
last but a few years. C. H. Raymond. 

Buffalo, August 6th, 1842. 

Soot is a valuable manure, peculiarly rich in humus as 
well as salts, and in its composition more nearly allied to 
the solid substance of animals, than anything else. It 
contains of humus or geine 30-70, of nitrogen 20-, and of 
salts of lime 25-31 parts in 100. It also abounds in salts 
of soda, potash and ammonia. According to the analysis 
of Dr. Dana, 100 lbs. of soot contain as many of the 



136 the farmer's mine. 

valuable salts as a ton of cow dung, and its nitrogen, com- 
pared with that manure, is as 40 to 1. The ordinary 
farmer can make but little use of soot, as it is not to 
be had in the country in any considerable quantities ; but 
those in the vicinity of cities may avail themselves of this 
manure with much profit. For the gardener or the flori- 
culturist, soot is an excellent manure ; but care must be 
taken not to use it too freely, as we have known tender 
garden plants at once destroyed by too liberal applications 
of it, particularly in a dry state. Mixed with water, in 
the proportion of six quarts of soot to one hogshead of 
water, it has been found a most efficacious liquid for 
watering plants, particularly those grown in green 
houses. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

EXCREMENTS of birds. 

Pigeon dung. — This sort of dung, almost free from 
straw, presents the excrement almost pure or mixed with 
remains of feathers, themselves rich in azotic substance, 
in a state of convenient division. Preserved and dried, 
also, under shelter, this manure is without question the 
richest of what are called dungs ; but it has far less 
energy than the powdered manure obtained from animal 
remains. 

Intelligent cultivators well know the excellent effects 
of pigeon dung, and go far to seek it. On the large farms 
of Pas-de-Calais, the pigeonries are numerous and very 
populous ; they are let by the year, or leased for several 
years, at a rent of $20 for the dung collected annually 
from 500 or 600 pigeons. A pigeonry of this size yields 
a large wagon load of dung, which thus costs $20. A 



EXCREMENTS OF BIRDS. 137 

bad of this dung serves to fertilize two acres ; consequent- 
ly the manuring costs $ 10 an acre, not including the trans- 
portation. This manure is used chiefly for crops for the 
arts, such as flax, tobacco, colza, &c. 

Dung of aquatic birds. — On the islands of the Pacific 
ocean, enormous banks of dung have been discovered, 
accumulated during centuries by the aquatic birds which 
frequent them. These residuums, rich in organic, azotic 
putrescible matters, contain also much uric acid. There 
is an important trade in this manure between the south- 
ern part of America and Peru, to which it is sent. 

It is probable that this manure, exported under the 
name of guano, has a strong similarity in its use and 
effects to the pigeon dung of which we have just spoken. 
The following is the account of it given by Messrs. Hum- 
boldt and Bonpland. 

" The guano is found in great abundance in the South- 
ern ocean upon the islands of Chincha, near Pisco ; but 
it exists also upon the coasts and islands further south, at 
Ilo, Iza and Arica. The people of Chancay who carry 
on the trade in guano, go and return from the islands of 
Chincha in 20 days; each boat is loaded with from 1500 
to 2000 cubic feet. The substance forms a bed of from 
50 to 60 feet in thickness which is worked like bog iron 
ore. The same islets are inhabited by a multitude of birds, 
especially the crane and the flamingoes, which spend the 
night there ; but their excrements for three centuries have 
not formed a bed of more than 4 or 5 lines in thickness. 
The fertility of the sterile coast of Peru is founded upon 
the guano, which is a great object of commerce. Fifty 
small vessels, named guaneros, are going constantly to 
transport this manure to the coast, and it is scented at a 
quarter of a league's distance. The sailors accustomed to 
this ammoniacal odor do not suffer : we sneezed constant- 
ly on approaching it. For maize particularly the guano 
is an excellent manure. The Indians taught the Span- 
iards the use of it. If too much of the guano is put upon 
the maize the roots are burned and destroyed." M. de 



138 the farmer's mine. 

Humboldt sent a quantity of the guano to Messrs. Four- 
croy and Vanguelin to be analyzed and to determine the 
uric acid. From their, analysis it may be concluded that 
this manure is nothing else than the excrements of birds. 

Similar deposites of dung are met with in several caves 
formed by the bats. We may mention, for example, the 
caves of Arcis upon Aube, near Auxerre. All these depo- 
sites form a rather warm manure, and which, in regard to 
their cost, the quantity to be used, and the effects, may be 
compared to the dung of pigeons, of which we have just 
spoken. 

In the districts where silk-worms are largely reared, 
the excrements, and the larvae themselves which remain 
after the reeling of the cocoons, form also an excellent 
manure. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

NIGHT SOIL. POUDRETTE. 



Night soil, or the contents of privies, is one of the most 
powerful and valuable of manures ; but prejudices, com- 
bined with the difficulties formerly attending its use, have 
prevented much attention to it in England or the United 
States, until within a few years. In consequence, a sub- 
stance of the greatest importance to the farmer has been 
regarded as a nuisance, and, in the vicinity of large cities, 
has been truly so. Now, since science has taught the 
mode of preparing it for use, its use is becoming general, 
and its value fully appreciated. According to the analy- 
sis of manures, made by Boussingault and by Dr. Dana, 
there is no manure ordinarily accessible to the farmer so 
rich in the carbonates or salts of ammonia as this. This 
will be seen by comparing it with horse dung, the value 
of which is well understood. 



NIGHT SOIL. 



139 



Horse manure. Night soil . 

Geine, 27. ... 23. 

Salts, ...... -96 . . 1-2 

Carbonate of ammonia, . 3-24 . . 15-32 
The dung of the fattening hog approaches night soil in 
value, more nearly than any other ; indeed Dr. Dana sup- 
poses that for all the purposes of analysis, these may be 
arranged under one head. In practical use, Von Thaer, on 
the Prussian government farm, determined by experiment 
its comparative value as follows : If a soil without manure 
would yield three bushels of produce for one sown, manured 
with different substances the result was, 

Without manure, .... 3 for 1 sown. 

With cow dung, .... 7 " 1 

With horse dung, .... 10 " 1 " 

With night soil, .... 14 " 1 " 

Comparative value of night soil. 
In some experiments made by Arthur Young, and de- 
tailed in the Annals of Agriculture, the effect of this ma- 
nure on wheat was as follows : 

Simple soil, per acre, .... 12£ bushels. 

Bushels of night soil, .... 320 37£ " 

. . . . 240 324 " 



" .... 160 31^ " 



Cubic vards of farm yard compost, 60 25 

30 23| " 
30 do. and 1 cubic yard of chalk, . 25 " 

Applied to potatoes, the results were not less decisive : 
Simple soil produced per acre, .... 120 bushels. 
Night soil, 10 wagon loads, .... 600 
Bones, 10 " .... 650 « 

Hog dung, 60 one horse cart loads, . . 480 " 
Yard compost, 60 one horse cart loads . 300 

Poudrette. 
The most common method of using night soil, or at least 



140 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

that in which it is most portable and least offensive, is to 
convert it into poudrette. This is done to the best advan- 
tage in large manufactories ; and hence they are usually 
established in the vicinity of large cities, where the ori- 
ginal article is easily obtained. Different processes are 
adopted, but the most common is to dry the night soil 
slowly in pans, having previously mixed it with plaster or 
ground peat. The object in adding plaster or peat, is to 
prevent the escape of ammonia, on which the value of the 
manure is mainly depending. The dried mass is then pul- 
verized — is perfectly inodorous, resembles a dry brownish 
powder, and may be used broad cast or in drills. In 
Paris, a powerful manure is made, also called poudrette, 
by boiling the offals of the slaughter-houses into a thick 
soup, making this into a stiff paste by stirring in coal ashes, 
then drying and grinding. 

The following communication on this subject, we find 
in Vol. II. of the American Agriculturist. 

The use of this valuable manure is every year becoming 
more general. The highly concentrated vegetable nutri- 
tion contained in it, and the large and rapid growth it 
affords when properly applied, is fast acquiring for it a 
high rank among modern manures. There is no addition 
made to the value of the original material from which it 
is made, by the manufacturer ; and it is therefore in the 
power of any farmer or gardener to apply what is within 
his reach, without adding to it the expense of transporta- 
tion, packages, and the profit of preparing it. By adding 
dry peat, refuse tanner's bark, or even turf, with charcoal 
or ground gypsum, all the offensive effluvia is prevented, 
and the article can be removed without annoyance. 

An excellent plan for effecting this, is given by Mr. 
Woodfin in the Southern Planter. He says : " I collect 
the stercoraceous matters separately in large vessels. Af- 
ter the urine has become putrid, which will require but 
2 or 3 days in warm weather, and 10 or 15 in cold, add 
sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) slowly to the urine. If the 
urine is putrid, a powerful effervescence will immediately 



NIGHT SOIL. 141' 

take place. The acid must be added till effervescence 
ceases. By this process the carbonic acid is driven off, 
and the sulphate of ammonia is formed, which has no vol- 
atility, except at a high temperature. Thus is secured the 
ammonia formed by putrefaction, which would otherwise 
escape. I then add the liquid to the solid excrement, 
incorporating them well together, until a very thin batter 
is formed. Into this mass I stir my finely pulverised char- 
coal, according to my judgment, without regard to any 
precise quantity, which is then spread on tight boards in 
the open air. Stir frequently till the whole is dried, then 
pulverise and put it up in barrels for crops." 

Now, here is the wholes tory of preparing it nicely for 
sale. The oil of vitriol is a cheap article, and within any 
one's reach; but the same object is attained by using 
gypsum, which is a combination of sulphuric acid and 
lime. When this is used, a double salt is formed. The 
acid of the gypsum leaves the lime to unite with the 
ammonia of the urine, and the carbonic acid of the manure 
unites with the lime, making a double compound, sulphate 
of ammonia and carbonate of lime, or common lime, and 
the object is accomplished at less expense. Dry pulverised 
peat is a substitute for charcoal, even if it is desired to put 
up in packages ; and, being with many a cheaper material, 
may be properly substituted for it. Or if required for use 
on the premises, waste, tan, or common turf, well filled 
with decayed vegetable matter, may be used. 



CHAPTER XX. 

LIQUID MANURES. 

The blood and the urine of various animals, the gelatine 
in a viscous solution, the oleates, stearates, and other fat 
salts, dissolved or accompanied with organic matter in 
solution or emulsive suspension, the matters extracted from 
the intestines more or less liquid, and in general all liquids 
charged with organic substances and put in the atmos- 
pheric circumstances where their decomposition is effected 
rapidly and in contact with young plants, overtask at first 
or decompose their feeble organs, then very soon being 
almost completely dissipated, can no longer contribute to 
the growth of the vegetables that have outlived the 
excessive energy of their first action. 

However, all these liquids without exception, even those 
charged with the substances most rapidly alterable, may in 
certain circumstances be excellent manure ; we shall 
proceed to quote some striking examples. 

Diluted with water so as to contain four or five thou- 
sandths of the total weight of the dry organic matter, and 
then used in abundant irrigations, they are all able to 
produce extraordinary effects upon the progress of vege- 
tation ; but in the absence of economical means of 
irrigation, they would often require labor in watering which 
would be too expensive. 

Thus the suds and wash of kitchens, mingled with the 
liquids which flow from several butcheries, from numerous 
stables, and the ley from a multitude of laundries in two 
populous villages near Paris, carried off at first by a small 
spring into the ditches of a vast marsh-garden, cause crops 
there more than double of those usually obtained in this 



LIQUID MANURES. 143 

small culture ; directed afterwards upon a natural meadow, 
all parts of which are covered by turns at pleasure, they 
occasion five abundant cuttings, upon a soil which hereto- 
fore gave but one. 

I will add that most of the natural waters containing 
considerable proportions of organic matter, as that which 
I have met with in analyzing the water of a bored well in 
the Rue de la Roquette, and as appears from the composition 
of the waters of the bored wells of Tours, analyzed by M. 
Chevreul ; these waters, I say, used in irrigation would 
themselves present an aliment for the growth of plants. 

If, indeed, we call to mind that different plants may 
exhale each day into the atmosphere, several times their 
weight of water, retaining in their tissues, either assimilat- 
ed, or interposed, almost all the non-volatile matters which 
were dissolved, we shall understand the remarkable influ- 
ence of some ten thousandths of these soluble substances 
upon their weight after a vegetation of several months. 

The rich cultivations of Flanders and Belgium demon- 
strate the profit which may be derived from fluid azotic 
manures more or less diluted with water.* They are 
obtained and employed in that country as follows : 

Cisterns of mason work are constructed as conveniently 
as possible to receive the urine of the stables and the 
drainings of the privies, and, at the same time, near the 
roads which lead to the cultivated fields. These mixed 
matters collected, into this sort of close vessels, buried 
beneath the ground, are protected from the greatest causes 
of fermentation, that is to say the access of the air and the 
elevation of the temperature. 

When the liquid is to be used for watering, a portion of 
it is drawn out and divided with five or six times its bulk of 
water ; the mixture is then put in casks and spread upon 
the land either by letting it run, when clear, through a 



* In the excellent work, V Agriculture de la Flandre, by M. 
Cordier, may be found all the details of these nice agricultural 
processes. 



144 the farmer's mine. 

tube perforated with holes, or upon a plank, when very 
turbid. 

Sown fields and meadows just mown are thus watered. 
The vegetative force imparted by this watery manure, 
although of short duration, may have a great influence ; 
for, once covered with green young plants, the ground is 
defended from an accidental drought ; and moreover the 
plants themselves thus rapidly acquire the necessary 
strength to resist various adverse influences, and to draw 
from the atmosphere and the soil their ulterior aliment. 

The second mode of spreading the Flemish manure is to 
take it from the cistern without diluting, carry it in casks 
and pour it out by means of tubs. The handcart employed 
in Germany may also be used for this purpose. 

As the manure is now too active or too easily decom- 
posable to be put in contact with the plants or their roots, 
it is dipped out by the spoonful and deposited at the foot 
of each tuft, or again it is made to run in furrows between 
the plants sowed in rows or drills. 

Watering either with urine or water from the privies, 
or with the pasty matters mixed with these liquids, or 
finally with powdered oilcakes (dregs of oleaginous seeds) 
added, requires the following precautions : If these ma- 
nures are spread upon land already plowed and harrowed 
before sowing, a moist or slightly rainy time should be 
chosen, and the harrow should be used before sowing, so 
as to mix the manure with as much earth as possible, and 
avoid its immediate contact with the seed. 

For the same purpose when we would water after hav- 
ing harrowed and sowed, we should previously cover the 
grain and beat it down somewhat with two passages of 
the roller : the greater number of seeds are thus protected 
by a compressed layer of earth from the contact of a too 
active manure, which would destroy the radicals and plu- 
mules, or even prevent germination. 

For drill plants the Flemish manure is also insulated 
from the stalks, leaves and roots of the plants, by pouring 
it into holes of the dibble between the roots of the colza, 



LIQUID MANURES. 145 

pinks, tobacco, &c, in the - same line with them. This 
plan permits harrowing or hoeing between the rows with- 
out deranging the manuring ; besides, the mornings are 
selected, and moist weather, in order to avoid burning the 
leaves by a too rapid decomposition during the heat of 
the day. 

In the neighborhood of Lille one cask of Flemish ma- 
nure costs about six cents for purchase, six more for trans- 
portation, and twelve for spreading ; it contains two hun- 
dred and fifty pounds of matter and covers (spread by the 
ladle or watering cask) a circle of twenty-one feet radius. 
An ordinary vault in this country costs thirty dollars to fill, 
and contains eight hundred and sixty-four cubic feet, or 
two hundred and fifty-six casks. 

When the Flemish manure has just been spread in either 
of the ways above mentioned, a strong putrid odor is ex- 
haled in the vicinity. This phenomenon indicates a rapid 
disengagement of gas, out of proportion with the absorb- 
ing faculty of the plants. It causes a disagreeable taste 
to the edible products, and sometimes temporarily injures 
the growth. 

In Switzerland a liquid manure' is prepared with great 
care, under the name of lizier. The following is the de- 
scription of this manure by M. de Candolle, in his notice 
of the manures of that country : There is made in the sta- 
bles, behind the place occupied by the animals, a deep 
trough which receives their urine ; their excrements are 
mixed with it, and the trough may also receive the water 
from a reservoir ; several times a day, after having stirred 
it up carefully, the trough is emptied into the lizier pit, a 
trench with which it communicates, and which should have 
capacity enough to hold the manure w T hich is produced in 
a week. This manure should then remain at rest in the 
trench for a month. Consequently five pits are required, 
which are successively filled each week till the first is 
emptied, then the second, and so on. M. Bella, at the 
model farm of Grignon, has had trenches prepared on a 
similar plan. 



146 the farmer's mine. 

But liquid manures, or those much diluted, cannot in 
many localities be employed with economy, in waterings 
sufficiently frequent or in irrigation. They have besides 
some real inconveniences which modern improvements 
enable us to avoid, as we shall see by and by. 

Instead of diluting with water, we can sometimes profi- 
tably reduce the weight of the manure by evaporation. 
Thus for the blood of animals several processes of desic- 
cation can be employed, presenting for equal weights 
remarkable differences in the properties of the products ob- 
tained. 

The cohesion and insolubility acquired, have evidently 
the effect of retarding the decomposition of the dried blood 
thus obtained, and to assimilate it almost, in this respect, 
to the muscular flesh cooked at 212° and then dried and 
powdered. 

Blood and muscular flesh brought to a dry state in this 
manner, follow better and more gradually, in their sponta- 
neous decomposition, the progress of vegetation, and are 
preferable as manures to blood which, being dried at a 
lower temperature, has retained its solubility in water. 
The latter mode of drying should therefore be rejected, 
though sometimes more economical, at least when the 
dried blood is not designed for the clarification of beet or 
cane syrup, or fecula, &c. 

Experience, indeed, has shown that to manure an acre 
of ground in cultivation, where we employ eight hundred 
and fifty pounds of soluble dried blood, that is to say, dried 
in the air at a low temperature, seven hundred and fifty 
pounds of coagulated insoluble blood or only six hundred 
and fifty pounds of muscular flesh will also suffice ; the 
two latter agents will furnish the most aid to the latter 
growth of plants, which it is most important to favor, that 
is to say, at the periods of flowering and fructification, and 
will enable us to obtain the greatest proportion of the 
products which have the most value. 

Another means of retarding the decomposition of ani- 
mal substances, soft or liquid, and thus considerably in- 



LIQUID MANURES. 



147 



creasing their availability as manures, is the intermixture 
of porous charcoal in powder. 

To impress as deeply on the mind as possible the value 
of this manure, we take the following from Dana. 

The more exact analysis of cattle urine, by Sprengel,' 
who has devoted particular care to the subject, gives, as 
the average of many trials, the following, in 1000 lbs. 



Water, . 


926.24 


urea, ••....< 


40-00 


Albumen, ....... 


•10 


Mucus or slime, ...... 


1-90 


Hippuric acid, 1 combined with potash, ( 
Lactic acid, > soda and ammonia, form- < 


•90 
5-16 


Carbonic acid, J ing salts, [ 


2-56 


Ammonia, ....... 


2-05 


Potash, .... . 


6-64 


ooua, ....... 


5-54 


Sulphuric acid, ") combined with soda, lime f 
Phosphoric acid, > and magnesia, forming < 
Chlorine, J salts, [ 


4-05 

•70 

2-72 


Lime, ....... 


•65 


Magnesia, ....... 


•36 


Alumina, ....... 


•02 


Oxide of iron, ...... 


•04 


Oxide of manganese, . 

Silica, . ...... 


•01 
•36 



1000-00 

Let this now be compared with the standard of value, 
cow dung. 100 lbs. of that afford 2 lbs. of carbonate of 
ammonia ; while this evacuation gives 4 lbs. of ammonia 
in its urea, besides that in its other ammoniacal salts. 

The quantity of liquid manure produced by one cow 
annually, is equal to fertilizing 1 1-4 acres of ground, 
producing effects as durable as do the solid evacuations. 
A cord of loam, saturated with urine, is equal to a cord of 



148 the farmer's mine. 

the best rotted clung. If the liquid and the solid evacua- 
tions, including the litter, are kept separate, and soaking 
up the liquid by loam, it has been found they will manure 
land in proportion by bulk of 7 liquid to 6 solid, while 
their actual value is as 2 to 1. 

One hundred pounds of cow's urine afford about 8 lbs. 
of the most powerful salts which have ever been used by 
farmers. The simple statement then, in figures, of dif- 
ference in value of the solid and liquid evacuations of a 
cow, should impress upon all the importance of saving the 
last in preference to the first. Let both be saved. If the 
liquids contained, naturally, geine, they might be applied 
alone. It is the want of that guiding principle which 
teaches that salts and geine should go hand in hand, which 
has sometimes led to results in the application of the 
liquor, which has given this substance a bad name. 

It has been proved that the ammoniacal salts of urine 
have a forcing power on vegetation. The value of am- 
monia was long ago understood by Davy, and its carbonate 
was his favorite application. Plants watered with a sim- 
ple solution of sulphate of ammonia, an abundant salt in 
cow's urine, are fifteen days earlier than those watered 
with pure water. Grass land watered with urine only, 
yields nearly double to that not so manured. In a garden 
on land of very poor quality, near Glasgow, urine diluted 
with water, nearly doubled the grass. But upon wheat, 
sown upon clay land, it did no good ; it injured barley, 
potatoes grew rank and watery, and on turnips the effects 
were only half as good as mere unfermented dung. The 
circumstance of the soil, in this last case, was probably a 
deficiency of geine. 

The liquid evacuation of the horse is composed of 
Water, 94* 



Urea, 
Chalk, 

Carbonate of soda, 
Hippurate of soda, 
Muriate of potash, 



•7 
1J 

•9 
2-4 

.9 



LIQUID MANURES. 149 

The hippuric acid is not peculiar to the horse. The 
urine of most herbivorous animals contains hippurate, for- 
merly called benzoate of soda, its acid having the fragrance 
of gum benzoin. If man takes benzoic acid, hippuric re- 
places uric acid in the urine. According to the composi- 
tion, horse stale, pound for pound, is equal to the value of 
cow dung. Sprengel found the urine of sheep to afford, 
in 1000 lbs., 

Water, . . ' . . . 980 

Urea, with some albumen, ... 28 

Salts of potash, soda, lime, magnesia, with 
traces of silica, alumina, iron, and 
manganese, ..... 12 

1000 

No animal affords more urine than the hog. Owing to 
a peculiar volatile and unexamined substance, it gives 
plants and roots a disagreeable taste. Fed on grains and 
bran, the urine in 1000 lbs. affords, 

Water, 926* 

Urea, with a little slime and albumen, 56*40 
Salts, common salt, muriate of potash, 

gypsum, chalk, Glauber's salts, . 17*60 

1000* 

But rich as are the liquid evacuations of the stable and 
cow-yard, they are surpassed by those of the farmer's own 
dwelling, especially when it is considered with what ease 
these last may be saved. According to Dr. Thomson, 
1000 parts of this substance, the human liquid evacuation, 
contain 42£ lbs. nearly of salts, which are, 

Sal ammoniac, .... *459 

Sulphate of potash, . . . . 2*112 

Muriate of potash, . ... . 3*674 



150 



THE FARMER'S MINE. 



Common salt, . . 

Phosphate of soda, . 

Bone dust (phosphate of lime), . 

Acetate of soda, 

Urate of ammonia, . 

Urea, with coloring matter, 


5-060 
4-267 

•209 
2-770 

•298 
23-640 


Water, ..... 


42-489 
. 957-511 



4- 


lbs 


•70 


a 


2-36 


iS 


2 80 


a 


5-64 


a 



There is scarcely a single element in this liquid which 
is not essentially an ingredient in all plants. 

In every 100 lbs. of cow urine, are, 
urea, ..... 
Of horse urine, . 
Of human urine, . 
Of sheep urine, 
Of hog urine, 

It is at once seen, how valuable are swine as manufactur- 
ers of manure. 

The urea being called equal to ammonia, it is seen that 
the ammoniacal salts in human urine are very nearly the 
same as those in cow dung, but its effects in actual prac- 
tice are found to be nearly double those in cow dung. The 
actual amount of salts in 100 parts of human, cow, and 
horse dung, is, in round numbers, 1 per cent., while in the 
liquids it averages 5-88, being in the cow 7-4, and in the 
human 4*24 per cent., horse 6. 

All urine of course varies with the food of the animal, 
the season, and its age. White turnips give a weaker 
liquor than Swedish. Green grass is still worse. Distil- 
lers' grains are said to be better than either of these. The 
more water the animal drinks, the poorer the urine. 
Doubtless the liquids of fattening kine are richer in ammo- 
nia during this period, for it contains a part of that nitro- 
gen not carried away in milk. In winter, urine contains 
much less urea than in summer, sometimes only one 



LIQUID MANURES. 151 

half. Putrefaction changes urea to ammonia. The time 
required for this varies. Urine putrefying for a month, 
contains double the ammonia of fresh urine. It does not 
wholly decompose in a month ; but during all this time 
gives off ammonia. Unless then mixed with loam, or peat, 
or swamp muck, or where kept in tanks with its bulk of 
water, it loses ammonia. Urine is fully ripe, when it 
contains neither caustic ammonia nor urea. Whatever 
may be the food, it is evident, from the above statements, 
that rivers of riches run away from farms, from want of 
attention to saving that which ordinarily is allowed to be 
wasted. 

Each man evacuates annually enough salts to manure 
an acre of land. Some form of geirie only is to be 
added to keep the land in heart, if the farmer has but the 
heart to collect and use that which many allow, like the 
flower unseen, " to waste its sweetness on the desert 
air." 

Think one moment how much is now lost. If every 
human being voids urine sufficient to enrich an acre of 
ground, then a family of ten persons, if so minded, could 
save enough to enrich ten acres ; and the three hundred 
and fifty thousand inhabitants of the city of New York, if 
means were provided to collect and convert into manure 
their liquid evacuations, would fertilize three hundred and 
fifty thousand acres of land. Urine is sometimes mixed 
with plaster, or other absorbents, and thus formed into an 
article called Urate. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ANIMAL AND ANIMALIZED BLACK. 

I observed in 1820 and published in 1822, in a Memoir 
upon charcoals, which received the prize of the Society of 
Pharmacy of Paris, the remarkable effects of a mixture 
{a residuum of the refineries) in which coagulated blood 
formed at most from ten to fifteen per cent of the total 
weight. Whilst putrefaction had not previously taken 
anything from this product, of which I made trial as a 
manure, the presence also of eighty-five or ninety per cent 
of carbonized inorganic substances still retarded the 
decomposition of the azotic substance with energy. 

In consequence of the publication of this new fact, all 
the residuums of the refineries, which had till then been 
thrown away into the public sewers, came gradually into 
use ; soon after, taken from all our own manufactories and 
imported even from various European countries, they have 
added annually the enormous mass of forty-five thousand 
pounds of new manure to the means of fertilizing our soils. 
It constitutes at present, with the animalized black, the main 
bulk of transportable manures. The departments of the 
west, supplied from Nantes by sea, and along the course of 
the Loire, needing the most manure by the way, have con- 
sumed the largest quantity of the charcoal or animal black. 
Soils lately fallowed one year in two or even two years 
in three, by its use are sown every year, and have doubled 
and tripled the value of their net products. 

A measure of the power of this mixture gives at once 
the following astonishing result, which has been experi- 
mentally confirmed on a large scale ; the fifteen parts of 
dried blood which it contains act in a more useful manner, 



ANIMAL AND ANIMALIZED BLACK. 153 

as a manure, than four hundred liquid parts, representing 
about one hundred parts in a dry state. 

Hence, the organic matter united with charcoal is six 
times more powerful than alone; this fact explains the 
enormous consumption of the residuums of the refineries, 
and the much higher price than of their equal weight in 
dried blood. They are also spread with the greatest 
facility, and a remarkable economy of labor ; for it is 
sufficient to sow them after the grain and cover them 
along with it. 

The fertilizing action is constant under the ordinary 
conditions. 

Still, I soon discovered that the charcoal loses none of its 
weight, subjected during three months to the same atmos- 
pheric influences, to the action of distilled water and the 
roots of plants, even when the growth of the latter is 
purposely favored by gaseous emanations from azotic sub- 
stances in putrefaction. 

Another curious apparent anomaly was soon offered io 
our meditations ; we shall presently see that it adds a new 
proof to the support of the general theory which we have 
advanced. Some residuums of the refineries containing 
variable proportions between five and fifteen per cent, of 
dried blood had several times had an unfavorable influence 
upon the vegetation, and still without further addition of 
manure, increased the yield of the succeeding crop. This 
phenomenon determined some cultivators to permit the 
first fermentation to take place in these residuums before 
spreading them upon the land. In inquiring what could 
be the effects of this primary reaction in the case of the 
residuums which are termed too warm, I discovered the 
presence of from five to ten per cent, of altered sugar, 
which gave rise to an abundant production of alcohol and 
carbonic acid, and subsequently of acetic and hydro- 
sulphuric acid ; to these primary products succeed, much 
more slowly disengaged, carbonate and acetate of ammonia 
and all the results of the decomposition of azotic substan- 
ces : from this date the influence of the manure has been 
8 



154 the farmer's mine. 

constantly and evidently very favorable to vegetation. 
From that it appeared probable to me that the decom- 
position of the sugar alone could exert the unfavorable 
influence observed. Indeed in a series of special experi- 
ments all the mixtures, in different proportions, of alcohol 
and acetic acid with charcoal, were uniformly injurious to 
the progress of vegetation, and the more so the stronger 
the proportion of the acid. Wishing to know whether 
these phenomena were independent of the influence of 
charcoal, and if they would take place in presence of 
liquid azotic products, as from the solid remains of animals, 
I left in a close vessel and in open vessels mixtures of 
sugar : 1st, in beaten albumen to saturation ; 2d, in 
albumen diluted with equal parts of water ; 3d, in eggs 
beaten without being separated, such as are used in clari- 
fication ; 4th, in the juice expressed from muscular flesh, 
and finally, in the same liquid containing morsels of flesh. 
All these mixtures during two years experienced more or 
less slowly the reactions which produce alcohol and 
carbonic acid, and afterwards acetic acid, and traces of 
sulphuretted hydrogen. The pieces of flesh when well 
washed had not sensibly lost any of their constituent 
principles nor of their properties. It was therefore evident 
that the presence of sugar in the residuums employed had 
occasioned unfavorable reactions ; that these must needs 
take place in whatever state the azotic matter may be, 
and that it is useful to remove the sugar either by washing 
or by a slight fermentation, thus leaving to the coagulated 
blood interposed in the carbonaceous matter only its own 
useful action ; that finally, a very easy preliminary trial, 
simply washing some of the black upon a small filter, will 
enable us to discover the presence of the sugar, and con- 
sequently the utility of the aforesaid precautions, or the 
uselessness of them when the washings have been properly 
conducted at the refineries.* 

* M. Dutrochet has observed that the sugar itself dissolved [in 
water, put in contact with the spongy extremities of the roots, very 
soon destroys the plants. 



MANUFACTURE OF DISINFECTED MANURES. 155 

Other experiments show that charcoal may be useful 
not only to prolong and thus increase the effect of the 
blood, but, besides, that it may serve as an intermediate 
agent in absorbing gases and heat, and afterwards 
transmitting them to the plants. If several plants are 
made to vegetate comparatively, in two vessels containing 
pure charcoal, and watered daily with pure water, to one 
of which is daily added one per cent, of such charcoal, and 
to the other as much of the same charcoal impregnated 
with the gases which are disengaged by the spontaneous 
fermentation of animal matters, in the latter vessel the 
vegetation will be very beautiful, while in the other it will 
remain feeble and languishing. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

MANUFACTURE OF DISINFECTED MANURES. 

One of the most important discoveries in the annals of 
industry, presenting new facts to be enrolled in the science 
of agriculture and public health, comes to confirm the sys- 
tem of undecomposed manures, and to add a direct demon- 
stration to the utility of disinfection instead of previous 
putrefaction. 

The carbonaceous residuum from the refineries was al- 
ready insufficient for the demands of agriculture, when M. 
Salmon invented the manufacturing for its own sake, of a 
similar manure, still more efficacious, and especially more 
constant in its effects. He succeeded, by mixing azotic 
organic remains, in a state of minute division, with earth 
rendered exceedingly porous, carbonaceous and absorbent, 
by calcination in a close vessel. 

To show the immense advantage of preserving by this 
short process all the decomposable parts of the organic 
substances used as manures, without previously leaving 



156 the farmer's mine. 

the greatest part to be dissipated in the atmosphere ; it is 
sufficient to remark that the new manure, known by the 
name of animalized black, produces a useful effect at least 
ten-fold that which is obtained from an equal quantity of 
fecal matter, for example, slowly dried according to the 
usual processes. The ascertained results of a daily ma- 
nufacture of about eight hundred pounds near Paris, anc\ 
the facts collected by our most distinguished agronomes, 
from vast extents of land under cultivation, can leave no 
doubt upon this subject ; already treaties concluded in some 
of the populous cities insure the extended production of 
these unconsumed manures. 

We have remarked that the desiccation of fecal matter 
gave rise long ago to large establishments near the cities ; 
and that this desiccation is effected at irregular intervals 
between the rainy or moist seasons. The poudrette finally 
obtained is therefore the residuum of a decomposition of 
several years, during which the greatest part of the as- 
similable principles being exhaled into the atmosphere, 
have left in excess all the earthy and inert matters and 
those which are least decomposable. 

To this process, which is in general use even yet, and 
which diffuses a fetid odor to a great distance, is gradually 
succeeding; the much more rational mode above mentioned. 

o . - 

This important application promises to purify by degrees 
all the great centres of population ; applicable also to the 
immediate conversion into manures of all the liquids suffi- 
ciently charged with organic and azotic matter and all the 
parts of animals that are sufficiently divisible, it constitutes 
the most general process for the fertilization of the soil, 
and must gradually everywhere supply the deficiency of 
dung. 

Effects and mode of using the animalized black 
The manufacture of the new manure, the animalized black, 
is therefore complete ; it unites all the useful conditions 
of a minute division anda slow decomposition. It can be im- 
mediately applied to use, put in contact with the seed 



MANUFACTURE OF DISINFECTED MANURES. 157 

sown, with the radicles, plumules, stalks, and most delicate 
leaves. It is also evident — 1st, that we need never fear in 
the use of this agent the trouble of the myriads of parasi- 
tic insects imported with the dung, the vegetable manures 
and the ordinary mould. 2d, that the presence and inti- 
mate intermixture of charcoal presents an obstacle, more- 
over, to the attacks of the small animals which have some- 
times devastated lands manured with blood and muscular 
flesh. 

Among other curious examples of the latter kind of 
danger in the use of unmixed animal substances, we will 
mention what happened upon the first trial of dried blood 
in the colonies ; a field of sugar cane had just received at 
the roots of each tuft, a small handful of the powdered 
manure, deposited near the surface of the ground ; thou- 
sands of rats came from all parts, and rummaging among 
the roots, destroyed all hope of a crop for that time. 

One of the means of extending the benefits of the car- 
bonaceous powder, the base of the animalized black, 
would be, to send it to be employed wherever offal rich in 
animal matter is to be had, and of which the greater part 
is lost by a too quick decomposition, at the same time that 
it injures the taste of the products and poisons the air of 
the vicinity. In this way a simple mixture, in a sufficient 
proportion to disinfect these matters (and which would 
vary between one tenth and one fourth of their bulk), 
would triple at least and often multiply six-fold their use- 
ful effect, at the same time banishing all the inconveniences 
inseparable from putridity. Finally, it could not but pre- 
vent the manures of muscular flesh and dried blood from 
being carried off by rats and other small animals ; it would 
be best also, for these last rich manures, to have recourse 
to a mixture with from ten to fifteen per cent, of the car* 
foonaceous powder. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

YARD MANURE. 

After all the various kinds of manure already noticed, 
one — and that by no means small, compared with the rest, 
still remains — the great mass of matter collected in the 
farm yard. 

Animal manures. 

A late British writer on agriculture says : — " The chief 
use of cattle on an arable farm, besides those necessary 
for the operations of husbandry, is to produce manure for 
the land. If the cattle repay their food, and the expense 
and risk attending their keep, the manure is sufficient pro- 
fit. Even with a moderate loss, they must be kept, when 
manure cannot be purchased. The loss, if any, on the 
cattle, must be repaid by the increase of the corn crops. 
Manure is to a farm what daily food is to an animal ; it 
must be procured at any sacrifice." Common barn-yard 
or stable manure is the kind to which most farmers must 
look for the fertility of their farms. This consists of the 
droppings of the cattle, mixed with the straw used for lit- 
tering in stables or thrown into the yards for the animal 
to feed or lie upon, the coarser hay and weeds refused by 
the stock, and the urine of the animals kept in the stables 
or yards. 

In the language of a distinguished English writer, this 
mixed mass is collected during the period of feeding, when 
it undergoes a certain degree of fermentation. When trod- 
den by the feet of the animals kept in the yards, the effect 
is to exclude the external air, and to prevent the ferment- 
ative process from proceeding with that rapidity which 
would take place were the mass not compressed. 



YARD MANURE. 159 

The principal animal substances which are mixed with 
the ligneous fibre of the litter, and which cause it to under- 
go decomposition, are the dung and urine of the animals. 

The properties of this dung, to a certain extent, depend 
upon the kind of animals and the nature of their food. The 
dung of horses is easily fermented, and is more readily de- 
composable, in proportion to the succulence and nutritive 
qualities of the food consumed. This also holds with re- 
spect to the dung of oxen. When the animals are fed on 
straw and the dried stems of plants, the dung is less rich 
and decomposable than when they are fed on turnips, 
oil cake, and other nourishing food ; and the same thing 
holds with respect to the dung of the hog and other ani- 
mals. The dung of the different feeding animals is mixed, 
in greater or less proportion, with their litter, and the 
greater the proportion of the animal to the vegetable 
matter, the more readily will the latter ferment and de- 
compose. 

The urine of the animals, again, is in itself a very rich 
manure, and contains, in certain states of combination, all 
the elements which enter into the composition of plants. 
It is necessarily mixed with, and partly absorbed by, the 
litter and other substances in the yards, and it hastens, in 
a material degree, the fermentation of these substances. 

The urine, however, is apt either to make its escape by 
flowing out of the yards, or to be imperfectly mingled 
with the litter. It becomes, therefore, a part of the man- 
agement of the farm-yard, to provide against either of 
these contingencies. 

The farm-yard should be made level at bottom, and 
even paved, if the subsoil be very loose and sandy, and 
the bottom should be sunk somewhat below the surface of 
the ground. As a portion of the liquid will flow from the 
stables and feeding-houses, gutters of stone should be made 
to convey the liquid from these into tanks or other reser- 
voirs adjacent to the yards. The same means are to be 
taken for conveying away any excess of liquid from the 
yards themselves. This is not done for the purpose of 



160 THE FARMER'S MINE. 

draining the yards of moisture, which would be an error, 
but for the purpose of preventing any excess of liquid from 
being lost. The principal cause which produces a great 
flow of liquid from the yards, is an excess of rain, which, 
falling upon the heap faster than it can be absorbed, 
washes away the urine. 

Three methods may be adopted for the management of 
the liquid which is obtained from the feeding-houses, or 
which oozes or is washed off from the mass in the yards. 

1. It may be pumped from the tank or reservoir into 
which it had flowed, conveyed back to the farm-yard, and 
spread over the surface of the heap. In this manner it 
will be imbibed by the litter, and tend to hasten the de- 
composition of the mass ; or, if there be a compost heap 
upon the farm, the liquid may be upon it so as to be im- 
bibed by it. 

2. It may be pumped up when convenient, and convey- 
ed in barrels to the field, and spread over the surface ; a 
species of manuring which, under certain circumstances, is 
exceedingly efficacious. 

3. In the bottom of the tank or reservoir to which the 
liquid is conveyed, may be placed absorbent earths, stems 
of plants, and other matters. These being saturated, will 
become very rich manure, and may either be carried from 
the tank to the field, and applied to the ground, or put into 
heaps or composts, until the period of using them shall 
arrive. 

Of these methods of applying the excess of liquid from 
feeding-houses and yards, the most generally applicable to 
the common practice of farms in this country, is the con- 
veying of the liquid back to the yards, or the spreading of 
it over the surface of compost heaps, or other collections 
of absorbent substances. In Flanders, where extreme 
care is bestowed in the collection and preparation of liquid 
manures, there is a smaller proportion of straw and hay 
produced on farms, than in the mixed system of agriculture 
of Britain. There is not, therefore, so great a proportion 
of ligneous fibre to be decomposed. The Fleming^, 



YARD MANURE* 16 1 

accordingly, pursue the mode of managing their manure, 
"which the circumstances peculiar to their agriculture render 
expedient. They can always ferment sufficiently the 
fibrous matter of the heap of their farm-yards, and there- 
fore they have always a spare supply of liquid in a separate 
state. But in this country, where we aim at producing a 
large quantity of hay and the cereal grasses, we require 
nearly all the liquid of the feeding animals, to moisten and 
ferment the general mass of the farm-yard. 

When the animals of the farm are fed on tolerably rich 
and succulent food, and where the proportion of straw is 
not too large, there is no difficulty in fermenting the mass 
of the farm-yard to the degree required ; but when the 
quantity of straw is very large in proportion to the more 
moist and succulent food consumed, as sometimes occurs 
in the case of clay-land farms in certain districts, then 
there may be considerable difficulty in getting the straw 
sufficiently fermented and decomposed for use. This may 
arise from the want of moisture, as well as from a deficiency 
of animal matter ; and as we may not at the time have a 
power of supplying the latter, we must endeavor to keep 
the heap moist by soaking it, in the absence of rain, with 
water. But the permanent remedy for this evil is to 
increase the quantity of such nourishing food as the farm 
will produce — namely, cabbages, tares, clovers, and other 
succulent and nutritive plants. 

Sometimes, even when there is no extraordinary excess 
of dry litter, the fermentation of the heap in the yard, after 
proceeding to a certain degree, suddenly stops, by which 
the manure is much injured. This arises from the want of 
moisture ; and when it happens it is often very difficult to 
renew the fermentation. The best remedy is to turn over 
the heap, soak it with water, and mix it with horse-dung, 
or any animal offal that can be obtained. 

With these exceptions, the management of the farm- 
yard is not attended with any difficulty. We have seen 
that the mass consists of a collection of the excrements 
of the animals kept upon the farm, of the straw and other 
8* 



162 THE FARMER^ MINE. 

substances employed for litter, and generally of any refuse 
or offal produced at the homestead ; and that this mixed 
substance is accumulated chiefly during the months of 
winter, undergoing during this period a certain degree 
of fermentation and decomposition in the yards where it 
lies. 

The substance thus collected and partially fermented, is 
to be applied to the grounds during the months of spring, 
summer or autumn, immediately following the winter in 
which it has been prepared. It should be always applied 
as soon after it is prepared as possible, there being a waste 
either in retaining it too long, or in causing it to undergo 
a greater degree of fermentation than is required. 

In the process of the putrefactive fermentation, the 
elements of the body fermented, in assuming their new 
forms of combination, partly make their escape in the 
gaseous state. In the fermentation of manures, the 
decomposition may proceed so far that the great mass of 
the substance shall be exhaled, leaving behind only the 
earthy and alkaline, and a portion of the carbonaceous, 
matter of which it was composed. In the treatment of 
this class of substances, therefore, the putrefactive fer- 
mentation should neither be continued longer, nor carried 
to a greater degree, than is necessary for the purpose in- 
tended. 

In practice, our purpose is to produce certain kinds of 
crops ; and certain kinds of plants, it is found, require a 
greater action of manures at particular stages of their 
growth than others. Thus, the turnip, the carrot, and the 
beet, which are sown, as will afterwards be seen, in the 
early part of summer, require that the manure applied shall 
be in such a state of decomposition as to act upon and 
nourish them in the first stages of their growth ; and if 
this be not so, the crop may entirely fail. In these and 
similar cases, accordingly, a complete preparation of the 
farm-yard dung is an essential point of practice. 

Certain plants, again, do not require the same state of 
decomposition of the dung. Thus the potato requires less 



YARD MANURE. 163 

in the first stages of its growth than the turnip, and hence 
it is not necessary to subject the manure to be applied to 
the same degree of fermentation. 

In some cases, too, as in the process of the summer 
fallow, to be afterwards described, the manure is mixed 
with the soil some time before the seeds of the plants to be 
cultivated are sown. In such a case the manure undergoes 
the necessary fermentation in the soil itself, and does not 
require that previous preparation which, in the case of the 
turnip and some other plants, is required. 

But while no necessity exists for fermenting the matter 
of the farm-yard beyond the degree requisite for the special 
purpose intended, it is always a point of good practice to 
ferment it to that degree. In order to know when dung 
is sufficiently fermented for the particular use required, a 
very little practice and observation will suffice. When it 
is fully fermented, the long stems of straw which formerly 
matted it together, are in such a state of decomposition, 
that the parts can be readily separated by a fork. It is 
not necessary in any case that it be in that extreme state 
of decay in which we often see it used by gardeners, and 
when it can be cut by a spade like soft, earth. Whenever 
farm-yard dung has been fermented to this degree, it has 
been kept beyond the proper time, and the management 
has been bad. 

The mass, we have seen, is collected chiefly during the 
months of winter, and will always be ready to be applied 
to the ground in the spring, summer, or autumn immediately 
ensuing ; and there is no case in which it is advisable to 
keep it beyond the year in which it has been collected. 

A common and convenient practice, is to carry it out 
from the yards where it has been collected to the field 
where it is to be used, and there to pile it up in one or 
more large heaps, so that it may undergo the further 
decomposition required, before being applied to the land. 
Doubtless there is a certain waste of the volatile matter 
of the dung by this process, but it is frequently con- 
venient in practice, that the dung be thus carried to the 



164 the farmer's mine, 

field where it is to be used, so as to economize time at the 
season of more active labor. 

When, accordingly, after the dead of winter, as towards 
the end of December, and during hard frosts and snows, 
the men and working cattle upon the farm cannot be 
otherwise employed, we may begin to carry out the dung- 
to the fields where it is to be used. It is carried out in 
the carriages of the farm, into which it is lifted by large 
forks to be afterwards described. This partial carrying 
out of the dung from the yards proceeds when occasion 
offers, or when the state of the weather prevents the other 
labors of the farm from being carried on. And when the 
feedino- cattle are finally removed from the houses and 
yards,"and turned out to pasture, which, in the north of 
England, is generally by the middle of May, the whole 
remaining dung may either be carried to the fields, or 
remain in the yards till required for use. 

The dung, as it is carried out to the fields, is to be laid 
in large heaps, which may be about four and a half or five 
feet high, and of such other dimensions as may be 
convenient. When the dung is placed in these heaps, it 
is in a state very favorable to further fermentation ; for it 
is to be observed, that in all cases the turning over of the 
dung, so as to give access to the air, causes an increase of 
fermentation, and this is the method adopted by farmers 
and gardeners, when they wish to give a greater degree of 
fermentation to any heap. Should the dung in these large 
heaps not ferment to the degree required, they are to be 
turned over, and formed into new heaps, the upper part 
being placed below, and what was before below at the 
top. By this means the fermentative process will be 
renewed, and should this turning not be found sufficient, the 
heaps must be again turned over, so that they may be 
brought to the degree of decomposition required. The 
large heaps of this kind should not be placed in a very 
exposed situation, so as to be too much acted upon by 
winds ; and it is a good precaution, and a necessary one 
in very warm countries, to face up the sides with a little 



YARD MANURE. 165 

earth or turf, and to strew some earth upon the top, so as 
to prevent the escape of decomposing- matter. When it is 
wished to hasten the putrefactive process in these heaps, 
it is better that they be not compressed by the carriages 
going upon them to unload ; but where there is no peculiar 
necessity for hastening the putrefactive process, the car- 
riages and beasts of draught can go upon the heap with- 
out injury. When peculiar care is required, as when the 
dung has been imperfectly fermented in the yards, it should 
be spread over the heap in layers, so that one layer may 
undergo a slight fermentation, before it is compressed by 
that which is to be placed above it. 

The mass may be also turned over in the yards where 
it lies, and allowed to ferment before it is carried out to 
the fields for use. In this case the workmen begin at one 
side of the heap, and with large forks turn it over, laying 
that which was before uppermost underneath, so that the 
whole may be reversed. If, after this process of turning, 
no treading of cattle is allowed, the fermentation of the 
mass will proceed with rapidity, and then the whole may 
be carried out at once from the yards to the fields for use. 
This method will not only in certain cases be the most 
convenient, but will save some of that waste of volatile 
matter of the heap, which takes place under the other 
system. 

Where the dung produced is very rich and well decom- 
posed, as where cattle have been feeding in stalls on juicy 
and nutritive food, it may not appear to require this turn- 
ing over to fit it for use : yet even in such a case it is 
generally beneficial that it be turned over at least once be- 
fore being used, the effect being to ferment the mass not 
only sufficiently but equally, and to mix its different parts 
together. It may be observed also, that when the mass of 
vegetable and animal substances is thrown into a common 
yard, some care should be bestowed in spreading it equally, 
so that one part of the yard may not be filled with rich 
dung, and another with poor. The dung of horses, for 
example, is more susceptible of quick fermentation than 



166 THE FARMER S MINE. 

that of oxen. When the stable, therefore, opens upon a 
common yard, the horse-dung should not be suffered to ac- 
cumulate in a mass about the stable, but spread abroad 
upon the general heap. [Horse-dung is not suitable for 
dry sandy soils; it is generally kept by itself, and applied 
to low and cold soils.] 

Farm -yard dung is chiefly applied to the soil by being 
spread upon the land when in tillage, and covered by the 
plow. Being covered by the earth, the dung soon 
passes through its course of fermentation, and becomes 
decomposed and mixed with the matter of the soil. 

This valuable substance must be economized in the 
manner of applying it. The soil must be kept as rich as 
the means at the farmer's command will allow ; but it is 
an error in practice to saturate it at one time with manures, 
and to withhold them at another. They ought rather to 
be applied in limited quantity and frequently, so as to 
maintain a uniform or increasing fertility in the soil. 

Mr. Gay lord recommends, in removing the mass from 
the yard, to cover the successive deposits of manure with 
earth from ditches or ponds, peat or muck from swamps, 
or turf from bogs or plowed lands, as such layers, con- 
sisting mostly of vegetable or animal matters, will, by 
absorbing the drainings of the manure, or by the absorp- 
tion of the gases, be converted into one of the most effi- 
cient of fertilizers. 

The question of long or rotted manure the writer just 
mentioned disposes of in the following judicious manner : 

It is a question of considerable importance to the farm- 
er, and one which has been much discussed, whether it 
was better to apply manure in its long state always, or 
always allow its full decomposition before using. From 
his own experience, the writer has been led to doubt the 
correctness of either of these positions. It seems to be 
universally admitted that matter, to be efficient as a 
manure, must be soluble, and it is clear that the more 
solid parts of farm-yard manure require to be softened by 
putrefactive fermentation before they can be considered in 



YARD MANURE. 167 

this state. Where, then, the influence of manure is 
required to be felt at once, as on the turnip, beet and 
carrot crops, in order to push them forward at the first 
start beyond the reach of insects, my experience is, that 
the manure should be in a state reducible to powder, in 
which condition a large portion of it may be expected to 
be soluble, and of course at once available by the plant. 
Where, during the fermentative process, the mass has 
been reduced to a black carbonaceous matter, it may be 
inferred that the heat was too great, and the manure seri- 
ously damaged ; on the contrary, if the mass, while per- 
fectly fine, dry and friable, still retains its dark brown 
color, it will usually be found that none, of the good quali- 
ties have been lost by over-fermentation. 

But where the manure is to be applied to crops which 
do not require forcing forward in the early part of their 
orowth, but demand as much or perhaps more nutriment 
at a late period of their vegetation to perfect their seeds 
or roots, then experience has shown that it is best _ to 
apply the manure without any considerable fermentation 
to the soil. Indian corn, potatoes, and the grain crops 
generally, are of this class ; the two first particularly. 
The time when corn and potatoes require the most nutri- 
ment, is at the time when the ears and tubers are form- 
ing ; and when manures but partially fermented, or used 
fresh from the yard or stable, are applied, the decomposi- 
tion is comparatively gradual, and the supply greatest 
when most needed. I cannot recommend the application 
of manures of any kind directly to grain crops, as it has a 
tendency to give straw at the expense of the grain, and 
wheat so manured is far more apt to suffer from mildew 
or rust, than when the manure, by application to other 
and previous crops, has become perfectly incorporated 
with the soil. In this state, that rapid growth, which is 
the result of first fermentation, is avoided by the wheat 
plant; and the substances necessary to perfect the berry 
are already prepared and within reach of the growing or 
maturing plant. 



168 the farmer's mine. 

Where the unfermented dung of the yard or stable is 
applied to the soil, it should be covered at once by the 
plow, that the gases liberated in fermentation may not be 
lost, and that the moisture necessary for fermentation may 
be secured. When rotted or fermented, the covering is 
not of so much consequence, and it may, without loss, be 
scattered on the surface and mixed with it. If used with- 
out fermenting, it should be applied to hoed or summer 
crops, such as corn or roots, as these are in that state while 
the manure is at the height of its fermentation, when forc- 
ing manures are the most useful ; but if applied to the 
smaller grains, they are most active when matter for the 
perfection of the seed, not the enlargement of the straw, 
is most needed, and the last is increased at the expense of 
the first. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

COMrOSTS AND LIQUIDS. 

Mr. Gaylord says, there can be little question that the 
most economical way of making and using manures, is to 
convert the stable and barn-yard manure into compost, by 
the addition of peat, swamp muck, cleansing of ditches, 
wash of roads, leached ashes, or even common loam or 
earth, taking care, when the manure is wanted for heavy 
soils, that the earth used in the compost should be as light 
or sandy as may be ; and where the soil is light, that the 
compost earth should be marly clay. Into such a com- 
post heap, all weeds, straw, litter, animal matter of all 
kinds, night soil, &c, &c.,may be thrown, and upon it all 
the wash of the yards and urine of the stables may be pour- 
ed ; and if the animal and vegetable matters, as they ac- 
cumulate, are kept covered and moist, the fermentation 
will go on successfully ; the alkalies and salts of the ani- 



COMPOSTS AND LIQUIDS. 169 

mal matters will act on the vegetable part and saturate 
the earths used, and the whole will be converted into ma- 
nure of the most valuable quality. The labor of preparing 
compost, it is true, is much greater than merely drawing 
it from the yard, but the quantity is so much increased, and 
the quality so much improved, that it is the most econo- 
mical in the end. The only method that can compare with 
it is, to place these matters over the yard, and let them be 
composted or fermented in that place ; but there will 
always be great waste in this way; and where turf or vege- 
table mould is used for composting with the animal manure, 
the compost heaps can frequently be made where they are 
to be used, and the labor of drawing materials greatly 
lessened. Bommer's patent manure is only compost made 
in a scientific and accurate manner, every part of the pro- 
cess so managed as to produce a perfect fermentation, 
without the loss of any of the valuable parts of the con- 
stituents used. From a knowledge of the processes em- 
ployed by him, we are able to say, that where his direc- 
tions are followed, a powerful and valuable manure cannot 
fail to be produced. The fundamental principle upon 
which composts have been made, is that of impregnating 
the earths used in the process with the soluble salts and 
the gases, which, in the ordinary methods of rotting, are 
wholly or partially lost to the farmer. 

That well known farmer, W. A. Seeley, of Staten 
Island, gives the following as his practice : 

In the spring and in the fall, immediately after carry- 
ing out the supply of manure from my cattle-yards and 
hogsties, I bottom them anew with turf to the depth of at 
least a foot, covering it with six inches of sea-weed or 
drift. To the accumulation of the place during the win- 
ter, when little is to be lost in fermentative manures by 
solar heat or evaporation, I cart around the yard and 
spread on its upper edges some eight, ten, or more feet 
wide, the emptyings of my stables and yard-sheds, with 
the littered surface occasionally of my hog-pens (which 
are placed in the centre of my barn-yard). The feeding- 



170 the farmer's mine. 

racks and moveable pens are from time to time shifted, that 
the turf and sea-weed may, by the tread and droppings of 
the cattle, and the occasional moisture of the yard, be 
worked together, and the turf saturated with them as 
much as practicable. The main part of the manure, being 
placed on the upper sides of the yard, and settling down 
to the centre and towards the barn-drain, passes necessarily 
among the bottoms of the turf and sea-weed, which thus be- 
comes imbued with the substances necessary to prepare for 
the fermentative decay, which the acid of the one, and the 
saline impregnation of the other, require for them. In the 
spring, as soon as solar heat may induce a tendency to 
fermentation, and consequent evaporation and loss, the 
yards are turned over with a plow or shovel, that the 
whole may be so commingled that the turf may attract 
and absorb the waste which may otherwise ensue. At 
the lowest part of the barn-yard, and that to which 
everything from the farm-house, kitchens, farming yards, 
and stables tends, I have a cemented cistern or tank, ca- 
pable of containing 250 hogsheads. The windmill and 
horse-power of the yard is connected with this tank by 
pulleys, straps, and chain buckets, so that if during the 
winter, spring, or summer, I think best to wet my com- 
post heaps, hogsties, or any of the yards with those drain- 
ings, the power is conveniently applied, and by leaders 
the draining is thrown back to settle again through the 
mass and return to the tank. The compost yard adjoins 
the barn-yard, and is so graded, that if the drainings 
from the tank be thrown on to the heaps, after settling 
through, they return by box under-drains into the yards 
and tank. If a surplus is still on hand, a cart with a hogs- 
head and sprinkler is used, with which, in a four to one 
diluted state, I irrigate such grass lands as I think may be 
benefited by it, or my grain crops in such parts of a field 
as I apprehend may want it; an excellent method of 
readily adding to the manure, and of forcing those parts 
of a field which in the spring are perceived to want ma- 
nuring ; or my garden is fertilized and forced by it to any 



COMPOSTS AND LIQUIDS. 171 

state of productiveness which can be effected by such an 
application of the most stringent and prompt in its influ- 
ence, of all manures. The last spring, in spots where my 
wheat did not thrive comparatively, applying it with a 
watering-pot, the grain advanced and outstripped the sur- 
rounding parts of the crop, which before had afforded bet- 
ter promise of thrift. Pouring a pint of it into a hill of 
corn, of potatoes, or of vines of any kind, will be found to 
give an astonishing impulse to them. 

The filling and driving of the cart, sprinkling it on 
the field, or applying it to the hill or garden, is the work 
of the barn yard power, a boy, horse, cart, sprinkler, and 
watering-pot. The cart and its sprinkler, in its form and 
uses, is in all respects like those employed in cities for 
sprinkling the streets. To irrigate and manure drilled 
crops, the sprinkler should be taken from the rear of the 
cart, and two of them should be hung parallel with the 
shafts and over the drills. 

During the heavy rains of the fall and spring, should 
the drainings of the yard accumulate and fill the tank, and 
not be otherwise wanted, the surplus is let off into a muck 
road, embanked on the sides, and filled to the depth of ten 
to fifteen inches with seaweed, turf, turf-ashes, and a small 
supply of manure, and made gradually to percolate and 
settle downward through a distance of from four to six 
hundred feet in length, and twenty in breadth ; and through 
which muck-road, cattle, carts, and vehicles of every kind, 
when it is not too wet, are forced to find their way, to 
break up and mix its contents with the drainings of the 
yard. Until the drainings of the yard have reached the 
farthest extent of this road, they should not be applied to 
agricultural uses. Before driving my cattle from my 
yards, if it becomes necessary to do so, and always two or 
three times a day when its surface is moist, a boy, as a 
standing rule, drives them for exercise several times round 
the yards, the better to bring the manure in contact with 
the bottomings. Within the last year I have lost none, 
absolutely none — of the leachings of my yards and stables. 



172 the farmer's mine. 

To this it will be said by some, it is laborious and ex- 
pensive. Not so much so as may be apprehended, or as 
would be the case with others, not assisted with mechanical 
powers and underdrains as I am ; but what I have thus 
done at some expense may be done, in a great degree, for 
a mere trifle. 

I assume, as a standard, the fact that farmers with us 
pay one dollar per load for manure, and that this is a cri- 
terion by which to form an estimate of the labor or capital 
which may profitably be bestowed in obtaining it as I do. 
If this be the true criterion for judging, every day's labor 
I expend in producing it, is worth twenty-fold the sum I 
pay my hands to effect it. 

Turf affords an invaluable medium for saving the waste 
of manure and for increasing its amount and usefulness ; 
and it is better than rich mould, earths, or the parings 
and bottoms of ditches, inasmuch as it is all vegetable, and 
in itself, strictly speaking, a manure, when properly pre- 
pared. 

The contents of stables, barn-yards, and cattle and hog- 
pens, should never be exposed to the solar heat or to fer- 
mentative evaporations, or their drainings lost, when turf, 
or any inert vegetable substance or surplus farm materials 
of a vegetable or animal nature abound ; nor should ani- 
mal substances, fish or any other, be suffered to waste 
their effluvia in the air when such materials can be had. 
For all useful purposes, enough of the agricultural influence 
or effect of manure is produced, as soon as vegetable or 
animal decay is sure to progress. From that moment a 
compost should be resorted to, and the heat and action of 
the manure (which is sure and irresistibly powerful) be 
thus brought to operate on substances to which this pro- 
pensity has not been sufficiently imparted. In this state, 
all that is ordinarily wasted, tends to a useful result in 
augmenting; the mass. 

It is a common practice to bury fish, preparatory to 
their use as a manure, in common raw earth. The most 
soluble of ordinary manures, it is soon dissipated by atmos- 



VEGETABLE MANURE. 173 

pheric action, and leaves on the soil to which it has been 
applied, a raw earth, in its then condition injurious to it. I 
find it more beneficial to bury the fish in turf or turf ashes, 
seven loads to one of fish (in Loudon it is said of turf 
alone, even twenty to one), which the decay of the fish 
will make an excellent and very powerful manure, and one 
which will endure long after the fish will have done their 
office in the soil and disappeared. 

For a complete account of the management of the 
admirable estate of Mr. Seeley, see an editorial notice of 
" Wheat Sheaf Farm," Vol. I. of American " Agricul- 
turist." 



CHAPTER XXV. 

DIFFERENT METHODS FOR THE PREPARATION OR MANUFAC- 
TURE OF VEGETABLE MANURE. 

It has been lately announced that an excellent manure 
can be prepared in 24 hours, by making a bed of green 
weeds, upon which is spread a thin bed of pulverized quick 
lime : these beds are continued one upon the other : it is 
essential to prevent the spontaneous inflammation which 
would result from the heating of the mass, by covering it 
with earth and turf. 

The following process for the preparation and preser- 
vation of manures is according to the method of M. Da 
Olmi. In some suitable and convenient place a square 
cistern is constructed sufficiently capacious to contain the 
quantity of dung it is desired to preserve. On one of the 
sides an easy entrance is made with an opening sufficient 
to admit a cart ; this opening is kept habitually closed by 
a door or gate. In the neighborhood of the cistern is 
constructed a pit eight feet deep and three feet wide; a 
ley is prepared in this pit by putting into it, when filled 
with water, air-slacked lime and fresh ashes, taking care 



174 the farmer's mine. 

daily to agitate the mixture with a long pole. When the 
liquid is sufficiently charged with saline principles, which 
may be known from its greyish milky color and the dimi- 
nution of its fluidity, the dung is carried into the cistern, 
making a heap of five or six feet in thickness, which is 
watered upon its surface by means of an ordinary water- 
ing-pot, with the liquid drawn from the reservoir ; this 
done, the whole is covered with a pretty thick coat of 
earth. Successive heaps of dung will be added, seasoned 
and covered with earth in the same manner as the last, 
upon which will be placed the most compact earth that 
can be found, giving it a thickness of five or six inches at 
least. When the dung is taken from the cistern, planks 
are placed upon each load on the cart, in order to hinder 
as much as possible the dissipation of the gaseous princi- 
ples ; and when it reaches the field the plowman buries it 
without delay. 

The most approved method, as combining the principles 
already established, will be found in the following pages. 

Improved method for manufacturing vegetable manure. 

1. Form your barn-yard with a gradual descent to one 
side, so that the liquid formed by the rains will flow 
gently to that side. Make the bottom as hard and smooth 
as possible, that there may be little or no waste by soak- 
ing into the earth. Arrange your stables, hog-pen, &c., 
in such order as to throw all the litter and manure into 
the yard. 

2. Sink a vat or reservoir at the lower side of the yard 
of sufficient capacity to contain the juice of the yard. 
The most common form of the vat is six feet wide, by 
three feet deep, and twelve feet or more in length, accord- 
ing to the size of the yard and the amount of liquor flow- 
ing from it. When the vat is more than twelve in length, 
it will be best to divide it by partitions into two or three 
parts, so that if at any time you want to use only part of 
the liquor, you can do so without any inconvenience. It 



VEGETABLE MANURE. 175 

will be farther desirable to have the vat so connected with 
the yard, that when once full, and you have commenced 
your manufacture, if additional rains come before you shall 
have completed your heap, of which we will soon speak, 
you can prevent the liquid so formed from running into 
your vat, either by keeping it back in the yard, or by 
turning it in another direction. 

3. In this vat mix the following ingredients as nearly 
as you can without actual measurement or w T eight : To 
every barrel of liquid add 41b. of stone lime just slacked, 
41b. wood ashes of good quality and dry, or an equivalent 
of leached ashes, or 1-4 lb of potash, 1-4 lb. of salt, or 
its equivalent of old brine ; 2oz. of saltpetre, 20 lbs. of 
piaster of Paris, or mud, or muck ; 10 lbs. of excrements 
from the privy, or 20 lbs. of horse manure. Mix these 
ingredients thoroughly with the liquid in the vat ; and if 
the vat contains one hundred barrels, increase the above 
ingredients an hundred fold. It will be w r ell to mix these 
ingredients a few days before you lay up your heap, and 
stir them every day, but this is not essential. 

4. On the upper side of the vat lay the foundation for 
the heap, by placing poles or rails with one end to the vat 
and the other extending from it, about two feet apart ; on 
these lay other poles crosswise (precisely as we do the 
foundation for a stack of hay or grain), to keep the straw 
from the ground, and that the liquid may flow freely be- 
neath 

5. Having everything prepared, commence laying up 
the heap by placing a layer of straw, weeds, stalks, or 
whatever you have at hand, on the foundation of poles, to 
the thickness of a foot. You will find great advantage 
from throwing the materials, as you collect them, in the 
yard, and letting the cattle tread on them, until they are 
thoroughly broken and wet. When the layer is a foot 
thick, stir up the ingredients in the vat, and with a pail or 
other vessel thoroughly wet the layer on the poles. Place 
another layer on the first, and of the same thickness, wet 
as before ; and thus continue until you have raised the heap 



176 the farmer's mine. 

as high as you wish ; say, from six to ten feet. Be care- 
ful, at every wetting, to stir up the ingredients from the 
bottom of the vat. The easiest and quickest way to wet 
the several layers, will be to use a pump or elevaters, with 
a hose attached, to spread the liquor over the heap. In 
such case, let one stir, another pump, and a third man- 
age the hose. Only be careful, whatever method you 
pursue, to wet the several layers thoroughly in all their 
parts. When finished, cover the heap with the settlings 
in the bottom of the vat, or with anything else at hand — 
common earth will answer. 

6. If the heap consist of straw, weeds, and the like, it 
will require wetting every fourth day. If you have used 
much peat, muck, or earth with the straw, water once a 
week. To water the heap, make holes with an iron bar, 
or other instrument, in the top of it, from eight to twelve 
inches apart, and extending downward about to the mid- 
dle ; then stir the liquid in the vat, and pour it into the 
holes until the whole mass is saturated ; finally, close the 
holes. At every watering make new holes. 

7. Give the heap three waterings when made of straw, 
and it will be fit for use in fifteen days from the time of 
laying it up ; when much mud or muck has been added, 
in thirty days. 

8. When it is desired to manufacture this kind of ma- 
nure in places where barn-yard liquid cannot be readily 
obtained, river, spring, or pond water will answer the 
same purpose for wetting the heaps as the barn-yard 
liquid, by increasing, in a small proportion, the ingredi- 
ents for the mixture, as given in section 3, and adding 
them to it. 

Advantages of this mode of manufacturing manure. 
1. One great advantage is, the saving of the liquor of 
the yard by means of the vat or reservoir. With proper 
arrangement it can all be saved, and used to the best ad- 
vantage. This juice of the yard is by some called the 
cooked food of the plants. It certainly must be regarded 



VEGETABLE MANURE. 177 

as the essence of the manure ; yet this most fertilizing 
part of the farm-yard is suffered by thousands to be wash- 
ed away by the rains and lost for ever. Since the writer's 
attention has been directed to this subject, he has been 
often surprised and pained to witness the want of economy 
in this respect. There are very few barn-yards but, after 
a storm, you may see quite a stream flowing from them, 
thick and dark, loaded with the most fertilizing properties 
— in some instances running into the road — in others, 
mingling with the waters of an adjoining brook or swamp. 
Even on Long Island, where nothing can be raised with- 
out manure, and where hundreds of thousands of dollars 
are annually expended in the procurement of this indis- 
pensable requisite, this shameful waste is still witnessed. 
The writer has often pointed the farmers to their yards, 
thus sending forth their fertilizing streams, and addressed 
them in words like the following : — You will go and ex- 
pend your money and labor to bring manure from New 
York, when, at the very time, you are suffering a large 
quantity already at hand to run to waste. Again and 
again have they pleaded guilty to the charge ; until, at 
length, some at least show the reproof has not been en- 
tirely lost. Some are beginning to sink their reservoirs, 
and save that which has been too long lost. One gentle- 
man (Garret Kowwenhoven, Esq., of Flatlands) has sunk 
a vat, 60 feet long by 6 feet wide, and 3 deep, formed 
with the best white pine plank, by the side of one of his 
yards ; and he is fully satisfied that the saving of the liquor 
of his yard alone will tenfold pay him for his labor and 
expense. Turn back to liquid manures, and you will be 
fully satisfied of the vast saving to be effected. 

2. The reservoir will prove a convenient and profitable 
receptacle for various things which would otherwise be 
wasted, or worse than wasted — remaining complete nui- 
sances before the disgusted senses. All spoiled meats, 
fish, dead animals of the smaller kinds, &c, and even large 
ones cut in pieces, wash from the kitchen, soap suds, and 
all collected from the sleeping apartments. It will also 
9 



178 THE FARMER *S MINE. 

enable the farmer to use the excrements from the privy in 
the least offensive manner, and, at the same time, in the 
most advantageous form. Let him make a box of solid 
plank and suitable size, with side "plank a few inches 
wider. Let the extra width sink below the bottom of 
the box — form the ends like a sleigh-runner — fasten straps 
of iron on the sides, and joined together at the ends with 
a ring. Place this box under the privy ; and as often as 
full, hook a chain in the ring, and with horse or oxen draw 
it alongside the reservoir and empty it. If this is care- 
fully attended to it will bring many dollars into the pocket. 
You need not be afraid of any noxious vapors arising from 
the reservoir, so long as you keep a proper portion of lime, 
peat, refuse tanners' bark, charcoal, gypsum, or even turf, 
mixed in it. With such a reservoir you need let nothing 
be lost, but save everything. 

3. All thistles, mulleins, weeds of every kind, flags, 
sedge, &c, now a nuisance, may be converted into a 
rich and valuable manure. Let them all be gathered and 
laid up in the heap. Another advantage is the quantity 
of manure. Every thousand pounds of dry straw will 
give at least 4000 lbs. of manure, if used as soon as tho- 
roughly fermented. Mr. Kowwenhoven (the gentleman 
mentioned on a preceding page) laid up what was judged 
to be about one large load of straw ; the fifteenth day 
thereafter it was opened, and on that and the succeeding 
days his men drew out eleven loads of manure. 

The bulk may be very greatly increased by the addition 
of peat, swamp-muck, or even common soil. The best 
mode would be, to gather your peat or muck at such 
times as the ordinary labor of the farm is least urgent ; 
let it lie in heaps of moderate size, or in one continued 
bed until wanted to lay up in the manufacture. If 
it lies a year, all the better. In fact, after the first 
year, the farmer can with all ease collect it one year in 
advance. In laying up the heap for manure, place equal 
layers of straw weeds, &c, and peat or muck; and if 
necessity require, you can use two parts of peat to one of 



VEGETABLE MANURE. 179 

straw which has lain in the yard and mixed with the 
droppings of the cattle, &c. 

4. You will not fill your land with foul seed from 
manure made after this plan. The fermentation destroys 
all seeds in the body of the heap. 

5. You have a perfect control over your manure heap. 
If the fermentation rises too high, so that there is danger 
of burning or fire-fanging as it is frequently called, water- 
ing the heap will prevent it. So long as the heap is 
sufficiently wet it cannot injure. You have coarse or fine 
manure at your pleasure. It is fit to use in fifteen days 
where the heap has been made of straw, weeds, &c, with 
but little muck. It is then thoroughly fermented but not 
decomposed, the best state for plowing in. If you want 
it fine, let the heap lie, or turn it over, and wet it again. 

You can make your manure at such times and in such 
quantities as you please. 

6. And last though not least the quality of the manure. 
You can make it by the increase of the ingredients as 
you please. At the prescribed rate you will have a 
manure at least as rich as good horse stable dung. 



PART II. 



TILLAGE 



PRODUCTIVE FARMING: 



OR A 



FAMILIAR DIGEST 



RECENT DISCOVERIES 



LIEBIG, DAVY, AND OTHER CELEBRATED WRITERS ON VEGETABLE 

CHEMISTRY 5 SHOWING HOW THE RESULTS OF 

TILLAGE MIGHT BE GREATLY AUGMENTED. 



BY JOSEPH A. SMITH. 

REVISED BY A. B. ALLEN, 

EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 



1/ 

NEW YORK 
184 3. 



P K E F A C E. 



This book is a compilation. The object of its compiler 
has been the simplification of the more strictly scientific 
and technical writings of the principal agricultural writers 
of the present age. Practical farmers require the sim- 
plest and most elementary statements. The position of 
the agricultural interest renders it desirable that the recent 
views of Professor Liebig, the distinguished chemist, who 
has effected a complete revolution in the physiology of 
vegetation, should be presented in a style free from diffi- 
culty, condensed and separated from such portions of his 
work as would only bewilder ordinary readers. How far 
the attempt may be successful, the world must judge. 
The published lectures of the late Sir Humphrey Davy 
have been freely cited, and such portions selected, as, 
while they do not clash with later discovery, may prove 
a useful addition. The writings of Mr. Johnson, whose 
little elementary book is well known, have been laid under 
contribution, as well as the lectures of Dr. Mason Good, 
and such useful statements as have appeared at various 
10 



PREFACE. 

periods in periodicals devoted to the furtherance of agri- 
cultural science. It is to be hoped, that without tortur- 
ing the sense of previous writers, nothing will be found 
in these pages inconsistent with the doctrines of the 
learned German professor, whose writings, though admir- 
ably adapted for the perusal of those who are familiar 
with chemistry and physiology, are susceptible of being 
abridged and presented to the industrious farmer in a form 
less repulsive, because less learned, and, consequently, 
more generally intelligible. 



MODERN AGRICULTURE, 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

Agricultural science has for its objects all those 
changes in the arrangements of matter connected with the 
growth and nourishment of plants, the constitution of 
soils, the manner in which lands are enriched by manure, 
or rendered fertile by the different processes of cultivation ; 
and no rational system of farming can be formed without 
the practical application of well-understood scientific prin- 
ciples. Such a system must be based on an exact 
acquaintance with the means of nutrition in vegetables, 
with the influence of soils, and the action of fertilizing 
materials upon them. The object of the farmer is, to raise 
from a given extent of land the largest quantity of the 
most valuable produce at the least cost, with the least 
permanent injury to the soil ; and the sciences of chemistry 
or geology throw light on every step he takes, or ought 
to take, in order to effect this main object. Whoever rea- 
sons upon agriculture is obliged continually to recur to 
these sciences, jHe feels that, without such knowledge, it 
is scarcely possible to advance one step ; and, if he be 
satisfied with insufficient views, it is not because he pre- 
fers them to accurate knowlege, but generally because 
they are more current. It has been said, and undoubtedly 
with great truth, that a philosopher would most probably 
make a very unprofitable business of farming ; and this, 
certainly, would be the case if he were a mere philosopher. 



188 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

But there is good reason to believe, that he would be a 
more successful agriculturist than a person equally igno- 
rant of farming but ignorant of chemistry altogether : his 
science, as far as it went, would be useful to him. The 
great purpose of chemical investigation in agriculture 
ought, undoubtedly, to be the discovery of improved 
methods of cultivation ; but to this end, not only practical 
knowledge but general scientific principles are alike 
necessary : nor is industry ever so efficacious as when 
directed by science ; as he who, journeying in the night, 
aided by the most intelligible directions as to the way, is 
more certain of his footsteps if he carry a lamp to explore 
his path. Science cannot long be despised by any per- 
sons as the mere speculation of theorists, but must soon be 
considered, by all ranks of men, in its true point of view, 
— as the refinement of common sense, guided by experience, 
gradually substituting sound and rational principles for 
vague popular prejudices. If land be comparatively un- 
productive, the sure method of determining the cause, is, 
first to ascertain the exact nature and relative quantities of 
the ingredients which form the soil (which can only be 
done by chemical analysis), and then to supply such soil 
with the deficient materials requisite for the growth of 
such vegetables as it is best fitted to raise. The prepara- 
tion of compost will only be of real use when materials, 
which do not afford singly an efficient or convenient ma- 
nure, are made to do so by their mixture. Every farmer 
has it in his power so to compound the best from his store 
of manuring materials, that the defects of his soil may not 
only be remedied, but that the crops may receive those 
substances in sufficient quantity which #re required for 
their vigorous growth. To do this, however, it is requisite 
to know not only the component parts of the soil, but also 
those of the crops. If these are not taken into accouut, 
no clear idea either of the composition, much less of the 
action of manure, will ever be obtained ; and many sub- 
stances of real value will be tried, and, from misapplica- 
tion, tend to useless, if not injurious results. Perhaps iron 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 189 

may be found in injurious excess, which may be rendered 
harmless by the addition of lime ; or an excess of sand 
may be neutralized by the addition of clay. Is there a 
deficiency of lime ? The remedy is obvious ; or an excess 
of undecomposed vegetable matter may be removed by the 
judicious use of lime, by paring and burning. 

With the aid of chemistry, the precise value of any 
variety of limestone may be determined in a few minutes ; 
and so its fitness or unfitness, as one among many substan- 
ces intended to fertilize the soil, may be determined by a 
less expensive experiment than waiting to observe its 
action upon the land. In the same way, peat earth of a 
certain consistence and composition is an excellent manure ; 
but there are some varieties of peat which contain so large 
a quantity of iron as to be absolutely injurious, if not 
destructive to corn and grasses. Now, nothing can be 
more necessary, more useful, and fortunately more simple, 
than the mode of determining whether a metallic substance 
be present. More especially, it is solely by a reference to 
the elementary principles of chemistry and the ascertained 
constitution of manures, vegetables, and the air and soil in 
which they live and thrive, that we can determine whether 
it is wiser to plow that manure into the land, to apply it 
in a fresh, or in a fermented and decomposing state. We 
know, that as soon as dung begins to decompose, it throws 
off its volatile or gaseous parts. It is necessary that what 
is thus lost should be examined. It may be (which is the 
fact) that such evaporation is not only the escape, but the 
actual loss of that which forms a most material ingredient 
in the food of plants : and so, whether this shall be sup- 
plied gradually to the growing vegetable, or suddenly, 
is a question in the mind of an intelligent agriculturist 
tantamount to the inquiry often agitated among practical 
farmers, and determined only by individual caprice or fancy, 
as to whether the produce of the stable or the farm-yard 
is best, when spread upon the soil in a fresh or in a putrid 
state. When, for instance, it is considered, that with every 
pound of the strongly-pungent smelling ammonia lost in 



190 PRODUCTIVE FARMING, 

the air, a loss of at least sixty pounds of grain must cor- 
respondingly be sustained, — and that with every pound of 
urine a pound of wheat might be produced, — not only 
must we feel surprise at the ignorance which prevails 
as to the fact, but equally so at the indifference mani- 
fested by those who are aware of the value of such 
manure as to the best mode of applying it. On some 
soils a plant will thrive, on others it will sicken; and 
the same knowledge which will enable us to correct 
a faulty or weak vegetation, will enable us also to pro* 
duce far more abundant results than occur under the most 
favourable ordinary and natural circumstances. Agricul- 
ture has hitherto never fairly sought aid from that science 
which is based on the knowledge of those substances 
which plants extract from the soil, and of those restored 
to the soil on which they grow by means of manure. 
The application of such principles will be the task of a 
future generation ; for what can be expected from the 
present, which recoils with seeming distrust and aversion 
from all means of assistance offered by chemical investiga- 
tion ? A future generation will derive incalculable ad- 
vantage from these means of help, and make a rational 
use of philosophical discoveries. A marked and wide 
difference exists between the progress of manufactures 
and the history of agricultural operations. We see the 
steam-engine multiply indefinitely the labor of the human 
hand — supersede and almost infinitely exceed the united 
power of brute exertion ; invention has lacked no mechan- 
ism to produce myriads upon myriads of the same fabric ; 
thousands of piles of manufactured silks and cottons are 
produced annually, one factory supplying daily as many 
yards as would encircle the globe — strange advancement 
on the ancient spinning-wheel ; while the sons of the soil 
still toil on through the lono- summer months, and brave 
the winter's cold, to reap the same quantity of produce 
from the soil as their forefathers of a thousand years ago. 
We do not say that there is no limit to the capabilities of 
the earth's surfaces but fearlessly maintain, that such limit 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 191 

is yet far from realization ; and that not until prejudice 
be silent, and intelligence more universal, can it be hoped 
that the broad acres of our country will yield to science 
and skill all the treasures they contain. 

Half a century sufficed to Europeans, not only to equal, 
but to surpass the Chinese in the arts and manufactures ; 
and this was owing merely to the application of correct 
principles deduced from the study of chemistry. But how 
infinitely inferior is the agriculture of Europe, even of 
boasted England, to that of China ! The Chinese are the 
most admirable gardeners and trainers of plants, for each 
of which they understand how to prepare and apply the 
best adapted manure. Their agriculture is the most per- 
fect in the world ; and there, where the climate in the 
most fertile districts differs little from the European, very 
little value is attached to the excrements of animals.* 
Patient observation of results, and a ready adoption of 
really useful plans ; steady persistance, not in antiquated 
methods and notions, but in all that has been found by 
experience to be beneficial, — has raised the agriculture of 
that country, long ago, to a position which would rapidly, 
nay, instantly, be ours, if science were permitted to achieve 
for us that which, with them, has been the slow growth of 
centuries of experiment. 

The soil of England offers inexhaustible resources, 
which, when properly appreciated and employed, must in- 
crease our wealth, our population, and our physical 
strength. The same energy of character, the same extent 
of resources which have always distinguished Englishmen, 
and m^de them excel in arms, commerce, and learning, 
only require to be strongly directed to agriculture, to insure 
the happiest effects. We possess advantages in the use of 
machinery and the division of labor, peculiar to ourselves ; 



* This is an error, for no nation equals the Chinese, in not only 
saving the excrem nts of animals, but those also from the privies and 
every particle of vegetable and other manures within their reach. — 
Amer. Ed. 



192 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

and these having been mainly instrumental in aiding one > 
great division of human industry, we are justified in the 
assertion, that the steam-engine and machinery has not 
done more for trade, than science and skill, in various ways, 
may do for land. 

Besides chemistry, there is another science which has 
many relations to practical farming- — the science of geo- 
logy, or that which embodies all ascertained facts in regard 
to the nature and internal structure, both physical and 
chemical, of the solid surface of our globe. Though the 
substances of which soils chiefly consist are so few in 
number, yet every practical man knows how very diversi- 
fied they are in character, how very different in value. 
Thus, in some of the southern English counties, we have a 
white soil, consisting, apparently, of little more than chalk ; 
in the central parts of the country, a wide plain of dark- 
red land ; in the border counties of Wales, and on many 
of our coal fields, tracts of country almost perfectly black ; 
while yellow, white, and brown lands give the prevailing 
character to the soils of other districts. These differences 
arise from the varying proportions in which the sand, lime, 
clay, and iron, which color the soils, have been mixed toge- 
ther. Now, geology explains the cause why they have 
been so mixed in different parts of the country — by what 
natural agency, and for what end ; and by its aid we can 
predict the general quality of the surface-soil, and, more 
than this, of the unseen sub-soil, in the several parts of 
entire kingdoms. We may learn, if the soil be of inferior 
quality, and yet susceptible of improvement, whether the 
means of improving it are likely, in any given locality, to 
be attainable at a reasonable cost. 

Whether we attempt to investigate the composition of 
natural bodies, or, confining our attention to the review of 
those general diversities so remarkable on the earth's sur- 
face, the division of them all into two grand classes, as 
simple or compound, is an essential preliminary to a cor- 
rect comprehension of the subject. Those substances are 
simple, which cannot, by any known method, be separated, 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 193 

decomposed, or divided, in such a manner as to produce 
particles different in their properties from one another. On 
the other hand, those substances are compound which, by 
experiment, may be resolved into particles of an unlike 
nature. Thus, marble is a compound body ; for by a strong 
heat it is converted into lime — an elastic fluid, which is 
carbonic acid gas (itself also a compound), being disen- 
gaged during the process. Vegetable substances, whether 
in their living or dead state, are mostly of a very com- 
pound nature, and consist of a great number of elements. 
For a period of many centuries, and even till a very late 
date, there were four substances held to be elementary, or 
simple. These were Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. No- 
body could prove them so ; and yet, of these four bodies, 
all others in nature were supposed to be constituted. This 
system continued to be orthodox till very lately, when 
three of these imaginary elements, namely, Air, Water, 
and Earth, were proved to be compounds ; and, as we 
shall see in the progress of this work, a correct understand- 
ing of the properties of the atmosphere, and of its relative 
agency over vegetation, is indispensable to the adoption of 
such plans as are intended to increase the fertility of the 
soil. As to fire, it is still unknown whether it be simple 
or compound, in what its essence consists, or by what 
causes its effects are produced. The study of temper- 
ature, of the relative dryness or moisture of the air, of the 
action of the sun's heat over soils and vegetation, is closely 
identified with the science of agriculture. The influence 
of the changes of seasons and of the position of the sun 
on the phenomena of vegetation, demonstrates the effects 
of heat on the functions of plants. The matter absorbed 
from the soil can only enter the roots in a fluid state ; and 
when the surface is frozen, this mode of communication is 
suspended. The activity of chemical changes in living 
vegetables is likewise increased by a certain increase of 
temperature, as is evident if a stalk of henbane be partially 
immersed in hot water : its leaves will, for a time, become 
erect, and quickly forego their drooping arrangement, evi- 
10* 



194 PRODUCTIVE FARMING, 

dently referable to the increased rapidity with which fluids, 
under such circumstances, rise in the minute vessels of the 
vegetable. Heat, then, is rather to be regarded as an 
agency by which both compound and simple substances 
are alike affected. What the ancients considered to be 
simple bodies, are no longer considered to be such ; but, in 
place of these four assumed substances, the chemists of 
modern times have elevated to the dignity of elements, or 
simple bodies, a far more numerous race. No one, how- 
ever, asserts now-a-days, that even these are all absolutely 
simple. The term " element," intimates no more than that 
the body to which it is applied has never, in the opinion 
of modern chemists, been subject to further division or 
decomposition : that it has never been divided into parti- 
cles, different from one another, or from the original sub- 
stance. The number of simple, or elementary substances, 
at present known, and constituting visible Nature around 
ns, is fifty-four. 

Now, if these elementary, or simple substances, are 
placed either artificially or, as they are presented in the 
universe, naturally in contact with each other, they combine, 
or refuse to combine ; and by such combination, when it 
occurs, a great variety of compound substances are pro- 
duced. Some combinations are effected instantly, some 
more slowly and with difficulty, and there are certain ele- 
ments which can scarcely, by any means, be made to com- 
bine. The compounds produced by such combinations 
possess properties very different from those of the sepa- 
rate elements of which they are composed. Thus, carbo- 
nic acid, or the gas which sparkles in fermented liquors, 
combines very readily with pure caustic lime, and the pro- 
duct of the union is common chalk. So, if the proportions 
be varied, the same two elements produce the common air 
we breathe and the strongest aquafortis or nitric acid. The 
power, in virtue of which simple bodies can combine and 
produce compounds, is one of which the nature is totally 
unknown. Chemists have learned no more than that sim- 
ple bodies, or bodies supposed to be simple, do combine ; 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 195 

but why they combine, or what that is which makes them 
combine, they have not discovered. To the illustrious 
Dalton belongs the discovery that they do not unite at ran- 
dom, bu< always in definite proportions of each; so that, 
if the elements be represented by numbers, the proportions 
in which they unite may be expressed either by those num- 
bers, or by some simple multiples of them. Thus, sugar 
and Indian rubber are compounds resolvable into precisely 
the same ultimate elements, only in different proportions ; 
and, as the following table will illustrate, nearly one-half 
the weight of all vegetable productions which are gathered 
for food for man or beast, in their dry state, are but vary- 
ing compounds of the same elementary or simple bodies, 
the names of which are appended over the annexed num- 
bers. What the properties of these elements in their 
separate state may be, is not our immediate purpose. 

Carbon. Hyrdog-n. Oxvsren 

Hay, - - - 458 50 

Potatoes, - - 441 58 

Wheat straw, - 485 52 

Oats,- - - - 507 64 

parts by weight in 1000 pounds of each of the above 
vegetable substances. 

If we take the ash left by a known weight of wheat 
straw, or of hay, and mix it with the proper quantities of 
the four elementary substances named in the foregoing 
table, we shall certainly be unable, by this process, to 
form either the one or the other. The elements, therefore, 
into which all vegetable compounds are ultimately resolv- 
able, are not merely mixed together ; they are united in 
some closer and more intimate manner. To this more inti- 
mate state of union the term chemical combination is cor- 
rectly applied. Again, woody fibre, gum, sap, and the 
various fluids and substances which form a plant, are them- 
selves mostly resolvable into varying proportions of the 
same ultimate elements, which, taken together, form the 
entire vegetable. Thus, sugar forms one of the proximate 



)xvjren. 


Nitrogen. 


Ash. 


387 


15 


90 


439 


12 


50 


389 


4 


70 


367 


22 


40 



^96 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

principles of the sugar cane, and Indian-rubber is one of 
the proximate principles of a South American tree, which 
contains no sugar ; yet sugar and Indian-rubber are essen- 
tially composed of the same materials. So, if charcoal be 
burned in the open air, it slowly disappears, and forms a 
kind of air or gas, known by the name of carbonic acid, 
an elastic fluid precisely identical with that which forms 
the froth in ginger beer or common yeast. Now, this car- 
bonic acid is formed by the union of the charcoal or car- 
bon, while burning, with one of the elements composing com- 
mon air, named oxygen ; and in this new form, the elements, 
carbon and oxygen, are said to be chemically combined. 
Again, if certain vegetable and animal materials are mixed 
together, and left to the agency of the atmosphere, they react 
upon each other — perhaps become heated, as happens in a 
heap of stable dung, and are said to become decomposed. New 
compounds are formed from the union of previously exist- 
ing elements; perhaps ammonia is one of the most common 
and obvious, as indicated by its effect upon our eyes and 
nostrils. This, then, is as purely a chemical process as 
the conversion of wood into vinegar, or into charcoal, or 
the change that occurs when the flour of grain is converted 
by the distiller into ardent spirits; and in all well-directed 
attempts to fertilize the soil, a knowledge of these changes 
is absolutely necessary : at least, he who proceeds without 
it has disappointment in prospect, and gropes in the dark, 
with uncertainty for his guide. 

Now, chemical affinity is not only evident in the changes 
which masses of dead inorganic matter produce upon each 
other : it is found to be actively at work in the phenomena 
of vegetation ; thus proving that the growth of plants is 
more completely a chemical process than might have been 
imagined : and, as our further illustrations will tend to 
prove, the same law of affinity is equally operative upon 
animal structure, which, like that of plants, is not more 
truly alive than they. The sap consists of a number of in- 
gredients dissolved in water by chemical attraction ; and 
it appears to be in consequence of the operation of this 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 197 

power that certain principles derived from the sap are united 
to the vegetable organs. By the laws of chemical attrac- 
tion, different products of vegetation are changed and 
formed during the process of growth : vegetable and ani- 
mal remains are decomposed by the action of air and water, 
or exert upon those fluids a mutual agency essential to the 
change ; rocks are broken down and converted into soils, 
and soils are more finely divided and fitted as receptacles 
for the roots of plants. The repulsive energy of solar 
heat, or of that generated during chemical changes of con- 
stant occurrence, serves as the only counterbalance to that 
attraction which pervades the particles of all living or dead 
matter; and thus the harmonious circle of growth and 
decay is produced by their mutual operations. The differ- 
ent influence of the different solar rays on vegetation is but 
partially understood. There are rays transmitted from the 
sun which do not impart light, and which yet produce more 
heat than the visible rays. The effect of these invisible 
rays is purely chemical and independent of the heat they 
produce. Thus, potatoes, which sprout in a comparatively 
dark cellar, send out nearly colorless shoots. Plants kept 
in the dark in a hot-house grow luxuriantly, but never 
acquire their natural colors ; their leaves are white or pale, 
and their juices watery and sweet. So the upper surface 
of most leaves is darker than the lower, upon the same 
principle that the belly of a fish is whiter than its back. 

The most obvious instance of Electrical Agency in ex- 
ternal nature occurs in thunder and lightning. Electrical 
changes are of constant occurrence ; but as yet the effects 
of this power, not as accidental but as essential to healthy 
vegetation, have not been correctly estimated. No doubt 
the germination of seeds, as well as the growth of plants, 
is materially modified by the peculiar electrical condition 
of the earth and the atmosphere, and by the varying state 
of each. It is known that grain will sprout more rapidly 
and readily in water positively electrified — that is, charged 
with electricity in excess or beyond its natural quantity ; 
and that if, by artificial means, water be deprived of its 



198 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

natural amount of electricity, its power of stimulating the 
growth of seeds is thereby diminished. Experiments made 
upon the atmosphere show that clouds are usually defi- 
cient in electricity ; and as when a cloud is in one state of 
electricity, the surface of the earth beneath that cloud is 
brought into the opposite state, it is probable that, in com- 
mon cases, the surface of the earth is charged with the 
electric fluid in excess. 

We have spoken of Chemical Affinity : it is sometimes 
well named Elective or Chemical Attraction, inasmuch as 
it is but an exemplification of one form of that law which 
maintains the order of the universe. It is the expression 
of the fact, that certain elements of unlike nature combine 
with each other when placed in contact, or (figuratively 
speaking) refuse to combine with any other, electing even 
the proportions in which only such combinations can occur. 
This affinity is but one division of the great law of attrac- 
tion. In this aspect, there are Jive forms in which the rela- 
tions of all bodies to each other may be arranged. We be- 
gin with that which compels the heavenly bodies to rotate 
round the sun ; or a stone when thrown upwards to fall to 
the ground—in other words, to gravitate towards the earth's 
centre. Next, there is the attraction of cohesion : thus, 
particles of oil will rise through water, and having reached 
the range of each other's attraction, will unite into one 
common and separate body. It is this form of attraction 
which gives roundness to the drops of dew, or of the rain 
as it falls, and is the sole cause of the arched form of the 
rainbow. In the same way, drops of water or of quicksilver 
placed upon a dry plate have a tendency to unite, not only 
when they touch, but to run together when placed near 
each other. So, perfectly smooth and polished plates of 
glass or metal have a strong tendency to cohere. It is by 
the same means that the great number of rocks seem to be 
produced that enter into the substance of the earth's solid 
crust. The lowermost rocks are united by an intimate 
crystallization which is the most perfect form of cohesive or 
aggregate attraction that can exist among the particles of 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 199 

solid bodies. The next form of attraction is observed as 
occurring; between bodies unlike in their nature, solids 
and fluids, capillary attraction, as when sap rises in the 
minute vessels forming the stem of a tree against its own 
weight, or, in other language, overcoming the attraction of 
gravitation downwards. The Latin word which signifies a 
hair, is used in this instance to form the word denoting the 
extreme tenuity and delicacy of these narrow vessels, as 
only in such could fluids rise : hence the reason and the 
wisdom of this arrangement. 

Electrical and Magnetic attraction are important sub- 
jects for study, to which, in a practical work, it is not 
necessary very minutely to allude. It is well ascertained 
that the thorns, spines, or prickles that exist on a variety 
of plants serve not merely for their defence : they have a 
relation to the electrical condition of the atmosphere ; 
cases having been recorded in which spines have grown 
more than an inch during a thunder-storm. Some of the 
acacia tribe are fretted over with formidable spines which 
will take off a charge of electricity from a prime conductor 
as rapidly as a brass point — doubtlessly from the presence 
of a metal in those spines, probably the metallic base of 
flint. Now it is very unlikely that only the prickly plants 
require the electric stimulus. We know that, though the 
torpedo and electrical eel have power to benumb and kill, 
yet human beings, who have no such powers in health and 
in disease, are always charged with varying quantities of 
the electric fluid. So also of all vegetables : oat and wheat 
straw contain silica, which is metallic ; and the firmness 
of the stem may not be, and is not, the only reason for its 
presence. Lastly, we have chemical attraction or affinity. 
A few instances of its operation have been already noted ; 
but some affinities are more powerful than others. Pure 
lime has a strong affinity for carbonic acid gas, and this is 
a wise ordination ; and it is equally a proof of design that 
it should form one of the ingredients of the atmosphere. 
Under this arrangement of things, whole mountains of lime 
have been crumbled during successive ages into fertile beds 



200 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

of chalk. But lime has a still greater affinity for sulphuric 
acid or oil of vitriol than it has for carbonic acid ; and so, 
if natural or artificial chalk be subjected to the action of 
vitriol, another decomposition ensues: the carbonic acid 
flies off, leaving the lime to combine with the acid for 
which it has a more powerful affinity, the result of the new 
union being sulphate of lime, better known as alabaster or 
common gypsum. These transformations may not only be 
produced artificially, but are of constant occurrence, though 
of slow operation, in the great laboratory of Nature. To 
understand them is essential to the slightest knowledge of 
those chemical changes which are identical with the pro- 
cesses of growth in the vegetable world, and indeed in all 
living organized bodies, — and there are sufficient motives 
connected both with pleasure and profit to encourage 
ingenious men to pursue this new path of investigation. 



CHAPTER II. 



Some Account of the Simple or Elementary Bodies found (combined or 
uncombined) in Animals, Plants, and Soils. 

It is absolutely necessary, in order to a right apprehen- 
sion of the changes that occur during vegetable growth, 
and of course to a correct estimation of the most rational 
methods of forcing or favoring healthy vegetation, that we 
should become familiar with some of the most common 
properties of those simple bodies or elements, of which 
all nature around us is compounded. 

Four of them, by combining with other simple bodies 
that will burn, form acids ; eight of them are inflammable ; 
and there are upwards of forty metals. 

First, let us speak of Oxygen. Oxygen, in union with 
latent heat, forms oxygen gas, constituting about one-fifth 
of the air of our atmosphere. It is an elastic fluid at all 



ELEAIENTAKY B0UE*. 20 1 

known temperatures. It is heavier than the air, and sup- 
ports combustion with much more vividness than common 
air ; so that if a small steel wire, or a watch spring, hav- 
ing a bit of burning wood attached to it, — or, better still, a 
bit of phosphorus or brimstone, be introduced into a bottle 
filled with this gas, it burns with surprising splendor. 
Oxygen is a substance very extensively diffused throughout 
the* material world : it forms with nitrogen the air we 
breathe ; united with another element, named hydrogen, it 
forms water. It exists as a constituent of all animal and 
vegetable matter; and is found also naturally in combina- 
tion with most mineral productions ; from some of which, 
for experimental purposes, it may with great ease be pre- 
pared. Oxygen gas, when suddenly compressed, evolves 
both light and heat; is sparingly dissolved by water, 100 
cubic inches taking up only three or four of the gas. If a 
mouse, or a bird, were confined under a large bell-glass, 
filled with common air, it would live until it had consumed 
all the oxygen contained in that portion of air, and no 
longer. If, instead of the bird, a bit of burning brimstone, 
or a candle, were placed there, it would burn until it had 
absorbed all the oxygen, and then become extinguished. 

2. Hydrogen. — Hydrogen, or inflammable air, is the 
lightest known substance, being about sixteen times 
lighter than common air. For this reason it is used in 
filling balloons. The common gas in the streets and shops 
is mostly used for this purpose, instead of pure hydrogen, 
— the carbon it contains not materiallydestroying its light- 
ness. Not only is pure hydrogen the lightest of gases, but 
it is highly inflammable ; it will neither support combus- 
tion nor respiration ; — in other words, if a lighted taper or 
a living animal be immersed in pure hydrogen gas, it 
would cease to burn, or die. Hydrogen and oxygen are 
the two elements which form pure water, of which we 
must say more in another place. When these gases are 
mixed in certain proportions, they unite and explode with 
great violence if a lighted candle be brought in contact 
with them ; for experiment's sake, one part of hydrogen, 



202 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

and six of oxygen or even atmospheric air, will form a 
very powerfully explosive mixture. When a stream of 
hydrogen gas issuing from one vessel, and a jet of oxygen 
from another, are made to inflame as they unite, a most 
intense heat will be generated, sufficient to melt the clay 
of a common tobacco-pipe, and render lime perfectly fluid. 
Neither hydrogen nor oxygen are known to occur any- 
where in nature in any sensible separate quantity. They 
are abundant enough in combination with other matters. 

3. Nitrogen, sometimes called Azote, is another elemen- 
tary substance, entering most largely into the constitution 
of universal nature. United with the matter of heat, it 
may be artificially produced and presented as a transparent, 
colorless, insipid, incombustible gas, incapable of support- 
ing flame or breathing. It may be made to unite with 
oxygen (but of course only in certain definite proportions) 
by the agency of electrical fire. It may easily be pro- 
cured by burning a bit of phosphorus in a confined portion 
of air over water. The inflamed phosphorus rapidly unites 
with the oxygen until it has exhausted all that the air 
contains, then combustion stops, and the remaining gas is 
nearly pure nitrogen. Small creatures soon die in it for 
want of oxygen. It combines in five different proportions 
with oxygen, forming, in one instance, nitric acid oraqua- 
fortis ; and mixed, rather than chemically combined, with 
one-fifth its bulk of oxygen, it forms the air we breathe. 
Though ammonia is not a simple body, and, therefore, not 
to be classed with the present list, it may not be inappro- 
priate, after the mention of hydrogen and nitrogen, to say 
that it results from the union of the two. Ammonia ex- 
ists in rain water, and, as we shall subsequently show, is 
an important auxiliary to vegetable growth ; it becomes 
developed in putrid urine or stable compost ; it is a color- 
less gas, with a strong pungent odor. It dissolves easily 
in water, and is then called hartshorn. It is very volatile; 
has all the common properties of soda and potash, combin- 
ing readily with acids. Sulphate of ammonia exists 



ELEMENTARY BODIES. 203 

largely in the soot from coals. From this source the " sal 
ammoniac" of commerce is procured. 

Carbon. — Charcoal is the most usual and best known 
variety of carbon. It is black, soils the fingers, and is 
more or less porous according to the kind of wood from 
which it has been formed. Coke, obtained by charring, or 
distilling coal, is another variety. It is generally heavier 
or denser than the former, though less pure. Black-lead, 
or carburet of iron, there being in reality no lead in its 
composition, is a third variety still heavier and more im- 
pure. The diamond is the only form in which carbon oc- 
curs in nature in a state of perfect purity. That the dia- 
mond is essentially the same substance with pure lamp- 
black is a very remarkable circumstance. Charcoal, the 
diamond, lamp-black, and all the other forms of carbon, 
burn away more or less slowly when heated in the air ; 
and, combining with the oxygen of the atmosphere, form 
carbonic acid. 

Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, form the ulti- 
mate elements into whichjill the organized part of all vege- 
table and animal substances is resolvable. We say organ- 
ized : bones contain lime, and vegetables contain earthy 
and saline matters ; but these are not organized, they are 
deposited in cells or in a structure so arranged as to con- 
tain them. 

Chlorine, or Oxymuriatic gas, is, like oxygen gas, a 
permanently elastic fluid. When pure it has a greenish 
yellow color, and a very disagreeable odor and acid taste. 
It may not be breathed, and burning bodies are extin- 
guished by it. It destroys all vegetable and animal color- 
ing substances, as also the effluvium arising from the pu- 
trefaction of dead animal matter. It does not exist sepa- 
rately in nature, but is one of the components of common 
salt. 

Fluorine. — This substance has such strong tendencies to 
combination, that as yet no vessels have been found capa- 
ble of containing it in its pure form. It is one of the ele- 
ments composing the Derbyshire fluor spar or blue John. 



204 PRODUCTIVE FARMING, 

This mineral is a fluate of lime, in other words, a com- 
pound of fluoric acid and lime. Now, fluoric acid is itself 
a compound of fluorine and hydrogen ; and lime is not a 
simple body, but in reality the oxide or rust of a metal 
named Calcium, from the Latin word " Calx," signifying 
lime. Fluoric acid may be obtained from the Derbyshire 
spar by the action of sulphuric acid, which combines with 
the lime in consequence of the greater affinity of the two 
than exists between lime and fluoric acid, which by such 
process may be separated. 

Having disposed of these, we proceed to notice (not the 
whole range) but a few other simple substances found in 
nature, and chiefly in the animal, vegetable and mineral 
world. 

Sulphur. — This is a solid substance of a light yellow 
color, brittle and tasteless, and when rubbed emitting a 
peculiar odor. Melted and poured into cylindrical moulds 
it forms the roll brimstone of commerce. It burns with a 
pale blue flame in the open air, during which process it 
combines with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and forms 
sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol. Sulphur is found native in 
Sicily, Italy, and Iceland, and in combination with metals 
and earths in greater or less quantity throughout the mine- 
ral kingdom. It is a constituent of many vegetable and 
nearly all animal structures. 

Phosphorus. — Phosphorus is most easily obtained by 
burning bones to whiteness in an open fire. In this way 
the animal matter is driven off and nearly pure phosphate 
of lime (or a salt composed of phosphoric acid and lime) 
remains. This phosphate of lime, reduced to powder, is 
next mixed with oil of vitriol and water ; decomposition 
ensues in consequence of the greater affinity which oil of 
vitriol or sulphuric acid has for lime than the phosphoric 
acid already in combination with it. Next, by evapora- 
tion, the addition of powdered charcoal, and exposure of 
the mixed mass to distillation, the liberated phosphorus is 
separated into its two elements (phosphorus and oxygen), 
the former of which distils over, and at a low temperature 



ELEMENTARY BODIES. 205 

becomes solid. Phosphorus may also be prepared from 
urine. It takes fire at a heat considerably lower than that 
of boiling water. Phosphorus has a waxy consistence; 
when burned in oxygen gas, a very dazzling light is pro- 
duced; and the result of the combination is phosphoric 
acid, just as sulphur or brimstone, burnt in oxygen gas, 
produces sulphuric acid. Phosphoric acid combined with 
lime, forms phosphate of lime, the solid inorganic consti- 
tuent of bones. Phosphate of lime is easily obtained by 
exposing bones to a red heat in an open fire. Its first ac- 
tion is to blacken the bones, converting its animal carbo- 
naceous matter into charcoal : if the heat be continued, the 
charcoal or carbon unites with the oxygen of the atmos- 
phere in the form of carbonic acid gas, and the phosphate 
of lime remains beautifully white, left in the shape and 
arrangement of the organized cells it lately filled. Phos- 
phate of lime is found as a native mineral production in 
some parts of Ireland and elsewhere. Phosphorus will 
dissolve in spirit of wine or in oil, but is insoluble in 
water, under w T hich fluid it is always preserved. 

Iodine. — This simple substance is found existing as an 
undecompounded element in the ashes of marine plants 
after the extraction of the soda they contain. Sea-weed 
is largely used on the coasts of England and Scotland as 
a manure. Iodine is a dark-colored solid, having some- 
what the appearance of black-lead. It unites with all the 
metals upon which its action has been examined, and com- 
bines with oxygen, forming an acid. 

Next, let us allude to earths and metals, or such forms of 
them as fall within the range of simple elementary bodies. 
We have already said that lime, ordinarily considered as 
an earth, is in reality a metallic oxide ; pure soda, pure 
potash, calcined magnesia, pipe-clay, the base of flint, and 
some other similar substances, are, in truth, metals, united 
to oxygen in the same way as rust of iron is a compound 
of iron and oxygen. Lime, then, or, in chemical language, 
" oxide of calcium," combined with various acids, is a 
very abundant natural production, found widely diffused 



206 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

over every part of the habitable globe, as limestone, mar- 
ble, chalk, fluor spar, plaster of Paris, gypsum, or alabas- 
ter; these, under various names, being all of them com- 
pounds of lime with the carbonic, fluoric, or sulphuric 
acid. Besides these, lime, in combination with phosphoric 
acid, enters very largely into the composition of the solid 
skeleton or shell of animals. Pure lime is more soluble in 
cold than in hot water, a fact not without its interest nor 
intention. If chalk be exposed to a red heat, the carbo- 
nic acid, one of its constituents, is expelled, and pure lime 
remains. Pure, or caustic quick-lime, corrodes animal and 
vegetable substances, and is never found in them in an un- 
mixed state. Lime is one of the most infusible bodies 
known, but may be made to melt by the joint action of the 
combustion of oxygen and hydrogen gases. Lime has a 
powerful affinity for water, and the combination is attend- 
ed with the extrication of great heat, as when lime is 
slacked for the builder. In this process the water becomes 
solid, unites, not mixes, with the lime, and in passing from 
the fluid to the solid state, gives out the latent heat neces- 
sary to maintain fluidity. This heat becoming suddenly 
sensible, is sufficient to carry off a portion of the water in 
vapor, the union of the lime and the water producing a 
dry solid. The same chemical union occurs when plaster 
of Paris, or dry sulphate of lime, is mixed in certain pro- 
portions with water : the fluid solidifies, and unites w T ith 
the lime into the hard substance which forms the common 
plaster images or casts hawked about the streets by the 
Italians. Lime combines freely with many acids, existing 
in this form as " muriate of lime" in the water of the ocean. 
Of the application of earthy minerals to the land, we will 
speak in its proper place. 

Sodium. — This is the metallic base of common table or 
rock salt, which is a compound of two elements, chlorine, 
already alluded to, and sodium, with water. The metal 
sodium has a lustre and color very similar to silver, and is 
so soft as to be pressed into leaves between the fingers. It 
may be obtained through the agency of the galvanic appa- 



ELEMENT ARY BODIES. 207 

ratus. When thrown upon water, it decomposes that 
fluid, it soon becomes oxidized, or robs the water of oxy- 
gen, setting its other constituent, hydrogm, at liberty, the 
action being accompanied with a hissing noise. Chloride 
of sodium, or common salt, is abundantly diffused over the 
world, both as a solid mineral production, and as the prin- 
cipal ingredient in sea-water ; it is essential to healthy ac- 
tion, as well in animal as in vegetable nutrition. If thrown 
upon hot coals, salt crackles, because the water it contains 
is not chemically combined but merely mixed or interposed 
between its particles, and so expanding by heat causes the 
separation of those particles and the resulting sound. So- 
dium united to oxygen, forms pure soda ; pure soda united 
to sulphuric acid, forms the Glauber salt, so commonly 
given to cattle ; pure soda united to carbonic acid, forms 
the substance sold in the shops as " soda," and bought for 
the purposes of the washerwoman. 

Potassium. — This is the metallic base of common pearl 
ashes. If the pure metal be thrown upon water, like 
sodium it swims on the surface, and darts violently hither 
and thither, with the sudden extrication of flame. This 
flame is burning hydrogen, and the phenomenon arises 
from the great affinity of potassium for oxygen, abstract- 
ing it from water, or all bodies that contain it. If the 
metal potassium be united with oxygen, it forms pure, or 
caustic potash, or oxide of potassium; if pure potash be 
united with carbonic acid, the result is carbonate of pot- 
ash, of which pearl ashes is an impure variety. United 
with nitric acid, potash forms saltpetre, which is found 
very abundantly as a natural product. Potash, combined 
with oxalic acid, is found in sorrel and other sour plants. 
Impure carbonate of potash remains in the ashes of most 
vegetables, and so largely in some of them, as to yield the 
immense supply for trade. Potash, united with fatty or 
oily substances, forms the various kinds of soap. 

Silicon is another metal which, in union with oxygen, 
forms silica, or siliceous earth, existing native in great 
abundance? and forming the chief ingredient in flint, quartz, 



208 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

and rock-crystal. From these substances silica may easily 
be obtained, by first heating them to redness, and then 
throwing them into water. For all common purposes, 
sand from the glass-house will answer. It unites with 
potash and forms glass, and is insoluble in all acids, except 
the fluoric acid, for which reason this acid is kept in leaden 
bottles. Silica exists very largely in the hard coating of 
the sugar-cane. In the stem of wheat straw, silica is 
essential to the firm, erect position of the plant ; conse- 
quently, if the soil be deficient of silica (a fact which is 
easily determined), the ear of corn will droop, upon a 
slender, short, and lanky straw. 

Aluminium. — This metal, in combination with oxygen, 
forms pure alumina. Alumina, more or less pure, exists as 
a most abundant natural production, being found as a chief 
constituent of clay, for pottery and bricks. Crystallized, 
it forms those precious gems, the ruby and sapphire ; so 
that the difference between a bit of charcoal and a dia- 
mond, is a similar difference to that which exists between 
a bit of clay and a precious jewel — merely a diversity in 
the arrangement of particles of the same matter. 

Barium. — A metal forming the base of the earth baryta, 
and of the various acids in combination with that earth. 
Carbonate of baryta is found native in Derbyshire. Pure 
baryta, like lime, slacks when in contact with water ; for 
which it has so strong an affinity, that the heat of a forge 
will not drive it off. 

Magnesium. — The metallic base of the earth magnesia, 
the calcined magnesia of the shops. In combination with 
muriatic acid, it exists largely in sea-water. With sul- 
phuric acid, magnesia forms the common Epsom salt, and 
is found as a native magnesian limestone in combination 
with lime and carbonic acid. 

Iron. — Iron is found native in many parts of the world, 
and is also very abundant in combination with sulphur, and 
many other substances, such as oxygen, forming oxides; 
also in further union with acids, forming carbonates, sul- 
phates, and phosphates. Green copperas is a sulphate of 



ELEMENTARY BODIES. 209 

iron. Rust of iron, produced by the action of the atmos- 
phere, arises from the combination of the iron with oxy- 
gen, derived from the air, and also with a portion of car- 
bonic acid from the same source, and so may be correctly 
named carbonate of iron. 

Lead. — Metallic lead is rarely found native, but is ob- 
tained in large quantities by smelting the sulphuret, a 
mineral known by the name of galena. Lead is found 
also in combination with oxygen and acids. 

Copper. — This metal occurs very commonly native in a 
state of perfect purity, sometimes in large masses, at other 
times in a crystalline form. It is commonly found in com- 
bination with sulphur, from which it is generally obtained. 
Blue stone, used by the farrier, is a sulphate of copper. 

Zinc. — Metallic zinc, sometimes named spelter, is ob- 
tained either from the impure carbonate, a native produc- 
tion called " calamine," or from another natural compound, 
the " sulphuret," or zinc blende. White vitriol, used in 
veterinary medicine, is a sulphate of zinc. The ores from 
which it is smelted, exist largely in some districts. — Tin, 
bismuth, antimony, arsenic, nickel, cobalt, and many other 
metallic substances^ might similarly be enumerated ; but 
these, existing in comparatively minute quantities, may be 
safely passed over. The elements found in vegetables are 
but few. Oxygen, hydrogen and carbon, form the great- 
est part of their organized matter. Nitrogen, phosphorus, 
sulphur, manganesum, iron, silicum, calcium, aluminum, and 
magnesium, enter into their composition, or are found in 
the agents to which they are exposed ; and these twelve, 
out of nearly sixty undecompounded elements, require to be 
familiarly understood by the agricultural chemist. Life 
gives a peculiar character to all its productions : the power 
of attraction and repulsion, combination and decomposi- 
tion, are subservient to it. A few elements, by the diver- 
sity of their arrangement, are made to form the most differ- 
ent substances ; and similar substances are produced from 
compounds which, when superficially examined, appear 
entirely different. 

n 



CHAPTER III. 

Plants and Animals are both alike endowed with Life ; the Elemen- 
tary Materials and many of the Proximate Principles of Animal and 
Vegetable matter are precisely identical — they have similar Organs 
essential to their growth and reproduction, and are nourished or 
destroyed by the same agencies. 

If I dig up a stone, and remove it from one place to 
another, the stone will suffer no alteration by the change 
of place; but if I dig up a plant, and remove it, strip its 
leaves, and leave the stem standing, 01 mutilate an 
animal, — that plant or animal will instantly sicken, and 
perhaps die. What is the reason of this ? Both have 
been perfected in connection with the same common soil. 
If I break the stone to pieces, though chemically, it may 
consist of several elements, yet every individual fragment 
will be found possessed of the original character of the 
whole mass; it is only altered in shape and magnitude: 
but if I tear off a branch from a plant, it will wither and 
lose the properties of its parent stock. The mineral can 
only be destroyed or changed by mechanical or chemical 
force ; while the plant, like all animals, has been pro- 
duced by generation, has grown by nutrition, and been 
destroyed by death, — in fact, it has been actuated by an 
internal power. 

In w^hat this internal power consists, w T e know not. 
Differently modified, we meet with it in both plants and 
animals. Wherever we find it, we denominate it the 
" principle of life ;" its presence forming a clear dis- 
tinction and boundary between the two great families of 
animals and plants, and all else besides in the universe. 
A cabbage is not less truly alive than the ox which feeds 
upon it. The superiority of the animal over the plant 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 211 

consists chiefly in this — the existence of mind or intellect, 
and correspondingly, a brain and nerves, of which the 
plant is deficient. Now, all living things are said to be 
organized, — that is, made up of various structures, evi- 
dently destined to answer certain ends ; and these, taken 
together, compose the entire plant or animal : as the root, 
sap vessels, bark, leaves, and other organs of a tree ; and, 
correspondingly, the bones, muscles, blood-vessels, skin, 
and lungs of a horse, a man, or a sheep, But this de- 
scription is not true of a piece of limestone, or a lump of 
clay, and, therefore, it is said to be inorganized. Hence, 
all the various bodies in nature arrange themselves natu- 
rally under the two great divisions of organized and 
vital, or inorganized and dead, without a single excep- 
tion. 

In their more perfect forms, the distinctions between 
animal and vegetable life are obvious enough. There is a 
wide distinction between a horse chestnut and a chestnut 
horse ; but as we approach the contiguous extremities of 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the distinction is not 
so easy. There are some natural productions which have 
been originally considered as minerals, afterwards as vege- 
tables, and have at last been regarded as belonging to the 
animal kingdom — less on account of any other property 
they possess than their similarity of chemical and elemen- 
tary constitution to the well-known ingredients of animal 
matter. Sponges, and many fungous growths, are of this 
character. 

In what part of a plant the living principle chiefly 
exists, or to what quarter it retires during the winter, we 
know not ; but we are just as ignorant in relation to animal 
life. In both, it operates towards every point : it consists 
in the whole, and resides in the whole ; and its proof of 
existence is drawn from its resisting those putrefactive or 
chemical agencies which instantly begin to operate as soon 
as the plant or animal is dead. While life exists, a vege- 
table or animal thrives and increases in its bulk ; a tree 
puts forth annually a new progeny of buds, and becomes 



212 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

clothed with a beautiful foliage of lungs, (every leaf being 
in itself a distinct lung), for the respiration of the rising 
brood, and with an harmonious circle of action, that can 
never be too much admired, a perpetual supply of nour- 
ishment is furnished first for its own growth, next for the 
growth and perfection of animal life ; while, from its own 
decay, as well as from the death of animal matter, there is 
formed, in rich abundance, the means of new births, new 
buds, and new harvests. In fact, everything is formed for 
everything, and subsists (if we may speak figuratively) by 
the kind intercourse of giving and receiving benefits. 
Such is the simple, but beautiful, circle of nature. That 
which lives, flourishes, decays, and dies, is not lost ; the 
great principle of life only changes its form ; and the 
destruction of one generation of plants or animals is but 
the necessary requisite to the support or existence of the 
next. 

Carbonic acid, Ammonia, and Water, yield elements 
out of which are built up all the organized parts of plants ; 
and it is no less true that these elements form the entire 
organized structure of animals. This being the fact, we 
should naturally suppose the conditions essential to the 
growth of each are the same — in fact, that the food con- 
sumed by vegetables and animals would prove essentially 
similar : and such is actually the case. The process of 
digestion in an animal is precisely identical with the pro- 
cess of appropriation or nourishment in a plant. Certain 
inorganic substances, salts and metallic oxides, serve pecu- 
liar uses — as lime to give solidity to the bones of an ox ; 
and silica, or the earth of flints, to serve the same end in 
wheat straw. 

We have already spoken of the elementary or ultimate 
constituents of vegetables. Out of these are formed the 
various immediate compounds which are found in them. 
The compound substances found in vegetables are, — 1. 
Albumen ; 2. Gum ; 3. Sugar ; 4. Gluten ; 5. Woody 
fibre ; 6. Starch ; 7. Extractive ; 8. Tannin ; 9. Resin ; 
10. Wax; 11. Fixed and volatile oils; 12. Bitter prin- 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 213 

ciple ; 13. Free acids ; and a few others ; to which must 
be added the mineral, saline, or metallic substances they 
contain. 

Out of the same elementary constituents of vegetable 
and animal structure are formed the materials composing 
the blood and all the secretions — fibrin, gelatin, mucus, 
albumen ; all the animal acids — spermaceti, hog's lard, 
train oil, and other fatty substances; ozmazome, urea, 
sugar of milk; together with many other matters enu- 
merated by chemists, only some of which are peculiar to 
the animal kingdom; — so that there is no difference be- 
tween albumen obtained from a vegetable and that which 
forms, in nearly a pure state, the white of an egg. Albu- 
men, in a solid form, constitutes the principal part of the 
almond, and of the kernels of nuts. The juice of a West 
Indian plant {Hibiscus esculentus) contains liquid albumen 
in such quantities, that it is employed in Dominica as a 
substitute for the white of eggs in clarifying the juice of 
the sugar-cane. Albumen is common to the vegetable as 
well as the animal kingdom, and may be easily distin- 
guished from other substances by its property of coagulat- 
ing or becoming hard and permanently solid by the action 
of moderate heat, or of acids. It forms a constituent of 
the serum of blood, of several of the animal secretions, and 
in a solid form of some of the organized structures of the 
body. Its composition, from whatever source it may be 
obtained, is Carbon, 52 ; Hydrogen, 7 ; Oxygen, 23 ; and 
Nitrogen 15 parts, (rejecting fractions), in every 100. 

Let us trace a few more of these comparisons, bearing 
in mind that nitrogen, as one of the elements into which 
both vegetable and animal compounds are ultimately resolv- 
able, exists always in greater proportion in flesh, than in 
grasses. All animal matters do not contain nitrogen ; nor 
are all vegetable substances devoid of it. 

Vegetable gum is analogous to animal mucus. Gum is 
a substance which exudes from certain trees ; it appears in 
the form of a thick fluid, but soon hardens in the air, and 
becomes solid, when it appears white, or yellowish white, 



214 PRODUCTIVE FARMING.- 

and somewhat brittle. The characteristic properties of 
gum are its easy solubility in water, and its insolubility in 
spirit of wine. All the varieties of gum are nutritious as 
food. Gum is composed of 43 carbon, 51 oxygen, and 6 
hydrogen, in 100 parts, or nearly. Mucus, a secretion 
found on the surfaces of the lining membrane of the intes- 
tines, possesses the same characters ; and its composition 
is nearly the same. It may be obtained by evaporating 
the saliva to dryness ; and is then similar to gum-arabic in 
its general appearance, but rather more opaque. It may 
be procured also by evaporating to dryness the fluid found 
in the shell of the oyster, or water in which that animal 
has been macerated. 

Sugar is essentially the same, whether derived from the 
maple-tree, the sugar-cane, the milk of animals, or even 
from the urine in the disease known by the name diabetes. 
Its composition is 28 carbon, 8 hydrogen, and 64 oxygen, 
in 100 parts, differing not very widely from gum. Sugar 
exists, naturally formed, in many plants and fruits, espe- 
cially the sugar-cane. During the Peninsular war, it was 
largely manufactured from the juice of the beet-root, both 
in France and Germany. It has also been obtained from 
grapes, from manna, from carrots, and from honey. 

Let us compare vegetable gluten with animal gelatin. 
First, of gluten. It may readily be prepared from wheat, 
or from flour, by the agency of cold water, and pressing 
out the starch. It has a grey color ; is elastic, ductile, 
and tenacious ; soon decomposing when kept long in con- 
tact with the air, emitting an offensive odor similar to that 
of putrid animal matter. Gluten, when burnt, affords 
similar products to albumen, or white of egg, and differs 
little from it in composition. It is found in a great number 
of plants : in acorns, chestnuts, apples, rye, barley, wheat, 
peas, and beans ; in the berries of the elder, and in grapes. 
Gluten appears to be one of the most nutritive of the vege- 
table substances ; and wheat seems to owe its superiority 
to other grain, from the circumstance of containing it in 
larger quantities. Animal gelatin^ its counterpart from 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 215 

the animal kingdom, enters largely into the composition of 
many of the animal solids; such as horns, hoofs, and skin, 
the organized structure of bone, cartilage, and tendon. 
Isinglass and common joiner's-glue are forms of gelatin, it 
being readily distinguished from all animal principles by 
its easy solubility in boiling water. Gluten and albumen, 
derived from vegetables, differ from other vegetable pro- 
ducts, principally in containing nitrogen, and thus assimi- 
lating very closely to the chemical character of animal 
matter. Its composition is 47 parts of carbon, 8 of 
hydrogen, 27 of oxygen, and 18 nitrogen, in 1.00 parts, or 
pounds. 

Woody fibre is a substance remaining after the plant sub- 
jected to analysis has been exhausted of all its soluble 
materials by repeated boiling in water and spirit of wine. 
It forms the bulk of vegetables. Its composition is 52 
parts of carbon, and 48 of hydrogen and oxygen, in such 
proportions as form water, in 100 parts. Animal fibrin is 
a principal constituent of the muscular, red or fleshy parts 
of animals, and of the blood. It may conveniently be 
procured by stirring blood recently abstracted, during its 
coagulation ; then washing the fibres till they become 
colorless, or by digesting small pieces of lean meat in 
repeated portions of water. As vegetable charcoal is 
made largely from woody fibre subjected to the action of 
a close fire, so animal charcoal may be similarly prepared 
from the muscular parts of animals by the same agency ; 
or, indeed, from any organized structure containing carbon. 
In animal fibrin, as it exists in muscle or in blood, one- 
half the weight is carbon. Fibrin is white, inodorous, and 
insipid ; when dry, it is hard, brittle, and slightly transpa- 
rent. Strong sulphuric acid blackens it, converting it into 
charcoal precisely as it does wood. In the roots of plants, 
in the trunk and branches of trees, the bark and heart- 
wood, the leaves and flowers, the great basis of the solid 
parts is woody fibre. It forms by far the greatest part of 
the heart-wood and bark ; there is less in the alburnum, 
still less in the leaves and flowers. Fibrin holds a similar 



216 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

relation to animal bodies. In 100 parts of fibrin there are 
53 1-2 of carbon, hydrogen 7, oxygen 19, and 19 of nitro- 
gen 5 the presence of nitrogen, or its addition, constituting 
the peculiarity which distinguishes fibrin from woody fibre. 

We have run the parallel far enough for ordinary pur- 
poses. Of course, there are some proximate compounds in 
animals and vegetables which are not common to both, 
though, with the usual addition of another element, nitro- 
gen, the most varying and unlike substances derivable 
from the animal and vegetable world are compounded 
from the same ultimate elements. Let us next briefly 
glance at a few of these. 

Starch. — Starch is procured from different vegetables, 
but particularly from wheat, or from potatoes. To make 
starch from wheat, the grain is steeped in cold water till 
it becomes soft, and yields a milky juice by pressure ; it is 
then put into sacks of linen, and pressed in a vat filled 
with water ; as long as any milky juice exudes, the press- 
ure is continued, the fluid becomes gradually clear, and a 
white powder subsides, which is starch. Arrow-root, 
tapioca, and sago, are nearly pure starch. Starch, or, in 
its absence, coagulated mucilage, forms the greatest part 
of the seeds and grains used for food ; and they are gener- 
ally combined with gluten, oil, or albumen ; in corn with 
gluten, in peas and beans with albumen, and in rape- 
seed, hemp-seed, linseed, and the kernels of most nuts, 
with oils. Its characteristic property is its easy solubility 
in boiling-water, and its insolubility in that fluid when cold. 
The ultimate composition of starch is, carbon 43 1-2, oxy- 
gen 50, hydrogen 6 1-2 ; or, in other words, carbon 43 1-2, 
and oxygen and hydrogen in such proportions as form 
w T ater ; differing, chemically, from gum, only in a very 
slight variation in these quantities. 

Extract, or the Extractive principle, exists in almost all 
plants. It may be procured in a state of tolerable purity 
from saffron, by merely infusing it in water, and evaporat- 
ing the solution. It may likewise be obtained from 
catechu, or terra Japonica, a substance now imported in 
immense quantities from India, and used in calico-printing. 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 217 

This substance consists principally of astringent matter 
and extract. By the action of water upon it, the astrin- 
gent matter is first dissolved, and may be separated from 
the extract. There are almost as many varieties of ex- 
tract as there are species of plants. It is not, nor can it 
be, used singly as an article of food ; but is probably nutri- 
tive when united to starch, mucilage, or sugar. Its com- 
position is carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and a little nitrogen. 

Tannin, or the tanning principle, may be procured by 
the action of cold water on bruised grape-seeds, or pounded 
gall-nuts, and by the evaporation of the solution to dryness. 
It is a yellow, highly-astringent substance. If tannin be 
distilled in close vessels, the principal products are char- 
coal, carbonic acid, and inflammable gases, with a minute 
quantity of volatile alkali. Hence its ultimate elements 
seem the same as those of extract, but probably in dif- 
ferent proportions. , Tannin is not a nutritive substance, 
but is of great importance in its application to the art of 
tanning. When skins (which are composed almost 
entirely of gelatin or jelly) are exposed to solutions con- 
taining tannin, they slowly combine with that principle ; 
their fibrous texture and coherence are preserved ; they 
are insoluble in water, and no longer liable to putrefac- 
tion ; and, by subsequent processes of rolling and drying, 
form leather. In general, in this country, the requisite 
tannin is made from the bark of the oak ; but the barks of 
other trees, and the wood and leaves of many shrubs, yield 
it abundantly. 

Resin is very common in the vegetable kingdom. One 
of the most usual species is that afforded by the different 
kinds of fir. When a portion of the bark is removed from 
a fir-tree in spring, a matter exudes, which is called 
turpentine. By heating this turpentine gently, a volatile 
oil rises from it, known familiarly as" spirit of turpentine." 
A more fixed substance remains, which is common yellow 
resin. Resins are insoluble in water, but very soluble in 
spirit of wine ; in this respect reversing the character of 
gum. Sandarac, copal, mastic, elemi) are resins obtained 
11* 



218 



PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 



from various trees ; and the list is very numerous Tar 
and pitch principally consist of resin in a partially decom- 
posed state. Tar is made by slowly burning the fir ; and 
pitch, by the evaporation of the more volatile parts of tar. 
One hundred parts of common resin contain 76 of carbon, 
13 3-10ths of oxygen, and 10 7-10ths of hydrogen. 

Wax is found in a number of vegetables, from their 
berries and the surfaces of their leaves. Its combustible 
property, like that of resins, is well known. The wax of 
the vegetable kingdom seems to be precisely of the same 
nature as that afforded by the bee. Its constituents are, 
carbon 81 7-10ths, oxygen 5 1-2, hydrogen 12 6-10ths, 
in 100 parts. 

Fixed oil is obtained by expression from seeds and fruits. 
The olive, the almond, linseed, and rape-seed, afford the 
most common vegetable fixed oils. Their common prop- 
erties are well known. They are lighter than water; 
and many of them congeal at a lower temperature than 
that at which water freezes. They all require, for their 
evaporation, a higher temperature than that at which 
water boils. The products of the combustion of oil are, 
water and carbonic acid gas. The fixed oils are very 
nutritive substances : they are of great importance in their 
applications to the purposes of life. Fixed oil, in combi- 
nation with soda, forms the finest kind of hard soap. Let 
us compare the ultimate analysis of olive or vegetable 
oil with that of spermaceti oil which is of animal origin ; — 



Olive Oil. 




Spermaceti Oil. 




Carbon 


77.2-10ths 


Carbon 


50 


Oxygen 


9.4-10ths 


Oxygen 


5 


Hydrogen . 


13.4-10ths 


Hydrogen . 


45 



100 



100 



The greater proportion of hydrogen in spermaceti oil 
renders it a fitter fluid for combustion in lamps than vege- 
table fixed oils ; but the ultimate composition of the two, 
as far as the list of ingredients is concerned, is evidently 
the same. 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 219 

Hog's lard, butter, spermaceti, may be regarded as 
animal fixed oils. 

Volatile, or essential oils, differ from fixed oils, in being 
capable of evaporation by a much lower degree of heat. 
Volatile oils give the peculiarity of odour to the pepper- 
mint plant, to camomile, and numberless other shrubs and 
trees ; existing in the flowers of some of them, and in the 
leaves and inner bark of others. Thousands of minute 
insects may usually be seen in the stalk and leaves of the 
rose ; but none of them are ever observed on the flower. 
One reason for the existence of fragrant volatile oil in 
plants may be, the preservation of the parts destined to 
the propagation of the species from the destructive ravages 
of insects and animalculae which feed on the bodies of 
plants. So, those woods that contain aromatic oils are 
remarkable for their indestructibility, as cedar, rose-wood, 
and cypress. The volatile oils inflame with more facility 
than fixed oils; and afford, by their combustion, different 
proportions of the same substances — namely, water, car- 
bonic acid, and charcoal or carbon. Volatile oils consist 
of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ; but, as yet, no accurate 
experiments have decided their relative proportions. 

The bitter principle is very extensively diffused in the 
vegetable kingdom. It is found abundantly in the hop, in 
the common broom, in camomile, and in quassia. The 
natural bitter principle is of great importance in the art of 
brewing. It checks fermentation, and preserves fermented 
liquors, and doubtlessly plays an important part in the 
healthy nutrition of the living vegetable. An intensively- 
bitter substance is found in bile, or the fluid secreted by 
the liver of animals. The gastric juice, or fluid secreted 
by the stomach, is not only the principal solvent in 
digestion, but has the same antiseptic property, or resists 
putrefaction as strongly as the vegetable bitter principle. 

Systematic writers on chemistry have enumerated a long 
list of proximate constituents, both of animal and vegetable 
structure. Many of them, as we have seen, are but the 
counterparts of each other. It is needless to specify them all. 



220 PRODUCTIVE FARMING, 

The earths found in plants are four, all of them, as 
previously related, of metallic origin. These are, 1st, 
Silica, or the earth of flints, the base of which is the metal 
silicon ; 2d, Alumina, or pure clay, the base of which is 
the metal aluminum; 3d, Lime, the metallic base of 
which is calcium ; and, Athly, Magnesia, the metallic base 
of which is magnesium. All of these are similarly found 
in animals ; among them, lime, most largely in their bones 
and shells. Some insects are almost entirely composed of 
silica : iron, existing in peat-mosses and in many vegeta- 
bles, gives the red color to the blood. None of these 
exist in a free or uncombined state, in either the vegetable 
or animal world; most commonly in combination with 
acids, of which we may observe, that some plants contain 
free vegetable acids in large proportion, as the common 
sorrel or sour-leaf. The applications of the vegetable 
acids are well known. The agreeable taste and w T hole- 
someness of various vegetable substances used as food, 
materially depend upon the vegetable acid they contain. 
Phosphoric acid (united to lime in bones) is found free in 
the onion ; and the sulphuric, muriatic, and nitric acids, 
though they cannot with propriety be considered as 
vegetable products, exist in many saline compounds, as 
part of the inorganic constituents of plants as well as 
animals. They are all variously compounded of carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen. Then, too, the saline compounds 
found in plants correspond with many similar compounds 
found in animals. Potash and soda, blended with acids, 
are found in blood, in the various animal secretions, in the 
leaves and stalks of vegetables ; sparingly in animal mat- 
ter, very largely in sea-weed yielding soda, and in the 
ashes of burnt wood yielding potash. 

Plants, like animals, are produced by ordinary genera- 
tion ; and though we meet with various instances of pro- 
duction by the generation of buds, and bulbs, or of slips 
and offsets, the similarity, instead of being hereby dimin- 
ished, is only drawn the closer ; for we meet with just as 
many instances of the same variety of propagation among 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 221 

animals. Many species of worms are capable of increase 
by buds, bulbs, or offsets ; and some of these animals, like 
the house-leek and various grasses, by spontaneous 
separation. A twig of myrtle will live and grow, if placed 
in the ground, because it contains in itself all the parts of 
a perfect plant ; but that is independent of the provision 
nature has made for the propagation of the plant naturally, 
from the seed buried in the earth. Something approaching 
very closely to the character of a sexual, or reproductive 
system of organs, is visible in the flowers of plants. The 
pistil is the organ which contains the rudiments of the 
seed ; but the seed is never formed, as a reproductive germ, 
without the influence of the pollen, or dust on the anthers. 
This mysterious impression is necessary to the continued 
succession of the different vegetable tribes. It is a 
feature which extends the resemblances of animal and 
vegetable existence, and establishes, on a great scale, the 
beautiful analogy of nature. Seeds which are shed devoid 
of this fructifying dust, are precisely analogous to eggs 
over which the influence of the male bird has neverbeen 
exerted. Vitality is therefore essential to the germina- 
tion of seeds : life will remain dormant, inert for an 
indefinite period, — and then change its form into that of 
active vitality, if that seed be placed under the action of 
moisture, heat, and air. So that the scriptural inquiry, 
" How can a seed quicken, unless it die I" is not to be 
taken as the enunciation of a scientific truth, but as an 
illustration drawn from the ordinary apprehensions of man- 
kind. 

The utmost period of time to which seeds may be kept, 
and be enabled to retain their life, and, consequently, their 
power of growth, has not been accurately determined ; but 
we have proofs enough to show that the duration may be 
very long. A paper of melon seeds, found in the year 
1782 in a cabinet of Lord Mortimer, and apparently 
collected in 1660, were then sown, and produced excellent 
fruit ; and, more latterly, seeds buried in the ruins of 
Herculaneum, and others brought from Egypt, — found in 



222 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

the tombs that are more ancient than the time of Moses, 
— have been proved to retain their vitality. Animal seeds, 
or, more properly, eggs, when perfectly impregnated, 
appear capable of preservation quite as long. This inert 
condition of seeds is not unlike what occurs in the hollows 
of our w r aste lands, in reference to animal matter. When 
those have been for some time filled with stagnant w T ater, 
we not unfrequently find minute eels, minnows, and water- 
insects there, and wonder how they could get into such a 
situation. But the mud which has been emptied out of a 
fish-pond has been, perhaps, thrown into these very 
hollows; or the eggs of the animals or insects have been 
carried, mixed with other materials, into the same place, 
and then waiting, it may be, year after year, the acciden- 
tal, yet necessary, circumstances of warmth, water, light, 
and air, they have been stimulated to active life. One 
species of locust appears, in numbers, only once in seven- 
teen years: and the palmer-worm once only, in similar 
numbers, in thirty years. Something analogous to this 
occurs in reference to various species of grub and fly, 
as observed by practical farmers ; and the reason of it 
is, that the integument, or outer covering, of many minute 
ova, ensures their protection and their vitality during long 
periods. The eggs of the gad-fly could never be hatched 
on the horse's back : their covering preserves them entire 
and vital, till, by the itching sensation their presence 
excites, the animal is tempted to lick the spot, and so 
convey them to his stomach, the only place where it is 
destined they should come to maturity. Numberless small 
fish are seen in the salt-pans at a village in Hesse 
Darmstadt : the ova of these fish have been conveyed there 
by birds, and, it so happens, are deposited in a place where 
the necessary conditions exist for their development. 

The essential difference between the egg of a barndoor 
fowl, and the ovum, or egg, which ultimately becomes a 
calf, a foal, or a human being, is, that the one, after the 
stimulus of impregnation has been applied to it by the male, 
comes to maturity within the t body of its parent ; in the 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 223 

other instance, it is hatched after its expulsion. In fish and 
in frogs, the spawn, or ova, is first expelled, then the male 
passes over it. The seeds of plants are exactly analogous 
to eggs; inordinary instances the germs and the fecun- 
dating material which ensures reproduction, being both 
found in the same flower, and, of course, attached to the 
same stalk. The various species of fruit are but contri- 
vances for the shelter and preservation of seeds, as the 
pippins of the apple, or of the orange and lemon; these, 
when fully ripe, left to themselves, would fall, become 
rotten, or, in other words, subjected to common chemical 
agencies and exposing the seed within, form, in the first 
instance, a manuring material for the perpetuation of the 
plant or tree which had yielded it. 

Plants derive all their sustenance from the spot on which 
they are placed ; and, solely for this reason, are not 
provided with a peculiarity which distinguishes animals, 
namely, a set of moveable levers or bones, destined to carry 
them about from place to place in quest of food, and of 
muscles, or red, fleshy, contractile organs, intended to act 
upon those passive levers : and yet there are some plants 
that seem fairly entitled to the character of locomotive or 
migratory. A familiar instance of this occurs in the 
strawberry genus : such plants grow from a new bulb, or 
knob, or radicle, while the old root dies away ; in con- 
sequence of which, we can only conclude, that the living 
principle of the plant has quitted an old, decayed, and 
ruinous mansion, to take possession of a new one ; so 
much so, that were a person to plant the orchis, or the 
devil's-bit, in his garden, and to search for it in the same 
spot, after an interval of seven years, he would find it 
several hundred yards from the spot where he had plant- 
ed it. 

There are some creatures that throw off their outer 
covering annually : so the shrubby cinquefoil, indigenous 
to Yorkshire; and other plants and trees, which, sending 
forth, every spring, new colonies, by means of runners 
(as we call 'them), shortly obtain a settlement for 



224 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

themselves, and break off all connection with the parent 
stock. 

The blood of plants, like that of animals, is of an 
extremely compound character. If blood be allowed to 
stand in a vessel, it soon separates into a clot, and a fluid 
in which that clot floats. Each of these is, again, divisible 
into several other matters. So with the fluid that circu- 
lates in the vessels of a tree. And, as from blood the 
various dissimilar solid and fluid secretions and excretions 
are formed, building up the animal fabric, — as bone, 
muscle, bile, urine, jelly, — so, from this common current 
of vitality, the sap, plants, like animals, secrete a variety 
of substances of different, and frequently of opposite powers 
and qualities — substances nutritive, medicinal, or destruc- 
tive. The flesh of the viper is healthful, his poison is 
deadly ; the root of the Indian cassava is poisonous, its 
leaves are eaten as ordinary food. Every one is familiar 
with the fact, that some of our domesticated animals will 
eat with impunity vegetables that would be poisonous to 
others. Then, too, how close is the analogy between the tor- 
pidity of the squirrel, or the dormouse, or the swallow, * du- 
ring the winter, and that of deciduous plants during the same 
season: we know, that if proper care be exercised, they 
may be removed in^ that state without endangering their 
vitality. Many animals are amphibious — they can live 
equally well on land or in the water; and the vegetable 
world is not without illustrations of a similar power. 
Indeed, the instances of resemblance between animal and 
vegetable life are innumerable. Some vegetables, like a 
few birds, more insects, and most of our forest beasts, 
appear to sleep through the day, and become active at 
night ; while the greater number of them, like the great 

* It is a mere fable that the squirrel and swallow become torpid 
during the winter. We have seen the former, hundreds of times 
frolicking in the liveliest manner in the forests, in the coldest weather 
in winter, as high up as the latitude of 43° ; and as to the latter, it 
migrates to the south in the autumn like our other summer birds.— 
Amer. Ed. 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 225 

majority of animals, fold or hang their leaves at sunset, 
and appear invigorated with the return of morning. Like 
animals, the duration of their existence is equally various. 

We have already observed, that plants and animals 
convert the materials of nutriment they receive into their 
own substance precisely by the same agency, and that 
there is no essential difference between the ultimate 
composition of the requisite materials in either instance. 
If this be so, as in the further progress of this inquiry we 
shall unquestionably prove, it would be fair to expect that 
the digestive organs of animals, — in fact, all that is con- 
nected with reproduction and growth, — have their coun- 
terpart in plants ; and such is actually the case. Let us 
briefly review the anatomy, or organized structure, of a 
plant, and compare that structure with the anatomy of a 
horse. 

Every plant, examined as to external structure, dis- 
plays, at least, four systems of organs, or some analogous 
part. First, the Root ; Secondly, the Trunk and Branches, 
or Stem ; Thirdly, the Leaves ; and, Fourthly, the 
Flowers or Seeds. 

The stem of any tree consists of the pith in the centre, 
the wood surrounding the pith, and the bark which covers 
the whole. A tree completely divested of bark, is precisely 
in the predicament of an animal deprived of its hide. The 
pith consists of bundles of minute hollow tubes, or vessels 
arranged horizontally; the wood and inner bark, of long 
tubes or vessels bound together in a vertical position, so as 
to be capable of carrying vegetable blood up and down 
between the roots and leaves. When a piece of wood is 
sawn across, the cut ends of these tubes are as distinctly 
perceptible as the divided arteries and veins in the stump of 
an amputated limb. Branches are only prolongations of 
the stem, and have the same character. 

The bark of the stem and root is divisible, like the 
covering of animals, into epidermis (analogous to the 
scarf skin which rises over a blister), and true skin, or 
inner bark, w r hich alone is vascular and vital. In forest 



226 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

trees, and in the larger shrubs, the bodies of which are 
firm, the outer bark, epidermis, or scarf skin, is a part of 
little importance ; but in reeds, grasses, and plants having 
hollow stalks, as wheat and oats, it is of great use, and is 
exceedingly strong, from the provision of its containing 
siliceous earth, or the oxide of a metal, as already stated. 
The analogy between this contrivance and the shell of the 
lobster, or the covering of insects, is very obvious. 

As the root tapers away, the pith gradually disappears, 
the bark thins out, the w r ood softens, till the white ten- 
drils, of which its extremities are composed, consist only 
of a colorless, spongy mass, in which the vessels or tubes 
that carry on the circulation lose themselves. 

The leaf is an expansion of the twig. Each separate 
leaf is precisely analogous in its action to the gills of a 
fish, or the lungs of an ox, or of a human being. The 
fibres which are seen to branch out from the base over the 
inner surface of the leaf, are prolongations of the vessels 
of the wood, precisely as the lung of an animal is but an 
outspread division of blood-vessels. A powerful sucking 
and forcing pump called the heart, is essential to drive 
human blood along large vessels to its ultimate division ; 
but the vessels of plants are capillary, that is, hair- like, 
exceedingly minute, and therefore a central pow r er or heart 
is not necessary. So there are capillary vessels in animals, 
and there the action of the heart is not so sensibly felt. 
Their minuter blood-vessels are believed by some to be 
contractile. The green exterior portion of the leaf is a 
continuation of the inner bark, and communicates directly 
with its vessels. Most of the vessels of the living plant 
are full of sap or vegetable blood in almost continual 
motion. In spring and autumn the motion is more rapid ; 
in winter it is sometimes scarcely perceptible. From the 
spongy part of the root the sap ascends through the vessels 
of the wood in virtue of that capillary attraction already 
adverted to, until it is diffused over the inner surface of the 
leaf. By the vessels in the green of the leaf it is returned 
to the bark, and through the vessels of the inner bark it is 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 227 

returned to the root. In man and four-footed animals the 
blood is driven from the heart along the arteries, and 
returns back by the veins ; but previously to being sent 
along the circulation a second time, it is driven into the 
lungs, is there subjected to the action of the air, (whence 
the necessity for breathing), and then, returned to the 
other side of the heart, is again fitted to recommence its 
journey. Animals derive a considerable portion of their 
nutriment from the change effected on the air by the 
action of the lungs • something is absorbed as well as 
given out. The leaves of plants perform the same office. 
In the sunshine, the leaves are continually absorbing car- 
bonic acid as well as other matters from the air, and giv- 
ing out oxygen gas. In breathing, carbonic acid is given 
off, and not triflingly. The air becomes instantly poison- 
ous, if that gas accumulate as rapidly as it did when some 
hundreds of our brave countrymen were pent up in the 
confined space of the " black-hole" at Calcutta. The 
leaves, then, are continually appropriating carbon, the 
basis of charcoal, from the atmosphere. When night 
comes, this process ceases, and they begin to absorb oxygen 
and give off carbonic acid. Hence the mischief of placing 
large plants, in great numbers, in bedrooms. It would 
result from the above arrangement, that plants grow very 
little, perhaps not at all, during the night. Now, during 
the summer months when they are provided with leaves, 
the days are long, the nights short : in winter, when plants 
are torpid or stationary, the nights are long, and the day 
comparatively brief. Sunshine is necessary, in order to 
enable plants to decompose carbonic acid and appropriate 
the carbon. It is owing to this law, that in the cold nor- 
thern regions where, in their highest latitudes, the sun 
once risen never sets again during the whole of their short 
summer, vegetation almost rushes up from the soil ; almost 
literally, plants may be seen to grow. The green leaves 
are continually gaining from the air and never losing ; 
ever taking in and never giving off carbon, since no dark- 
ness interrupts or suspends their labors. 



228 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

Every child is led to regard the root of a plant as the 
organ from which the vegetable groivs ; not merely as 
attaching it in the erect position to the spot, but as forming 
the medium of communication between all that is above 
ground, and the food the soil is supposed to yield. But it 
is not so obvious to us, who, in many senses, are but chil- 
dren of a larger growth, that the leaves of an oak or an 
ash spread their broad leaves into the air for the very same 
purpose as the roots diffuse their fibres through the soil. 
The only difference is, that while the roots absorb chiefly 
liquid, the leaves inhale almost solely gaseous food. The 
human lungs expose the blood to air just as, in the leaf, 
the sap is submitted to the same agency ; and in each in- 
stance there is a double use to which these organs are des- 
tined : they not only change the character of the circulat- 
ing fluid, but permit, by the decomposition of air, the 
absorption of some of its elements as food for the animal 
or plant. So that, in truth, we live and are nourished 
partly upon the air we breathe, and so is a cabbage upon 
the atmosphere it decomposes. If the experiment be 
repeated — it has often succeeded — that of burying the 
branches of certain trees in the soil and elevating the roots 
in the atmosphere, turning the vegetable upside down — 
there is as it were an inversion of its functions — the roots 
will produce buds and leaves, and the branches shoot out 
into root-like fibres and tubes. The experiment succeeds 
well with the willow. 

Though plants give out in the night carbonic acid, this 
process does not go on so rapidly, or to such an extent, as 
to destroy the balance in their favor of what has been 
absorbed during the day. The quantity absorbed through 
the leaves varies with the season, the climate, and the 
kind of tree ; it is also modified by the nature of the soil. 
It has been ascertained, however, that in our climate, on 
an average not less than from one-third to three-fourths of 
the entire quantity of carbon contained in the crops we 
reap from land of average fertility, or (pretty nearly) the 



ANIMAL AND"~VEGETABLE MATTER. 229 

amount of charcoal a burnt hay-stack would yield, is 
really obtained from the air. 

The varied and equally important uses of a leaf appear, 
to the contemplative mind, singularly beautiful. 

" In human works, though labored on with pain, 
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain ; 
In God's, one,, single, can its ends produce, 
Yet serves to second, too, some other use.' 5 

Then, too, the contrivance of so many expanded leaves ! 
The air contains only one gallon of carbonic acid in every 
2500 ; and this fortunately, rather we ought to say design- 
edly, only in a state of mixture, not of combination, with 
the elements of the atmosphere, and therefore more easily 
separable ; were the proportion larger, it would prove 
poisonous to the animals that live in it, deriving also a 
portion of their nourishment from another element of the 
atmosphere equally essential to plants. Now, in order to 
catch this minute quantity of carbonic acid, the tree hangs 
out thousands of square feet of leaf, in perpetual motion 
through the ever-moving air ; and thus by the conjoined 
labors of millions of pores, the substance of whole forests 
of solid wood is slowly extracted from the fleeting winds. 
Is not this wonderful ! Green stems, and stalks of grasses, 
absorb carbonic acid as the leaf does ; and thus a larger 
supply is afforded when the growth is most rapid, or when 
the short life of the annual plant demands much nourish- 
ment in a limited time. The slender and comparatively 
dry leaves of the pine and the cedar perform the same 
functions as the large and juicy leaves of the fig-tree, the 
cabbage, the walnut, or the rhubarb plant. That plants 
derive so large a proportion of their nutriment not from 
the soil, but from the air, is evident from observing the 
habitudes of many found in hot climates, which refuse to 
vegetate except in a soil so dusty that no moisture can be 
extracted from it, and perish if water be ignorantly supplied 
to them. A well-known Jamaica shrub was long propa- 
gated in our own stoves by cuttings, which though freely 
watered, could never be made to produce any signs of 



230 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

flowers or fruit, notwithstanding that the cuttings were 
several feet in length every season. By accident, a pot 
with young cuttings was mislaid and forgotten in the royal 
garden, and having no water given it, it was thereby 
reduced to its healthy dryness, and then every extremity 
was seen to produce a flower. It is an opinion common 
to many able men of the present day, that many plants 
derive the whole of their support from the surrounding 
atmosphere ; if this be true of some, it is partially true of 
all, and must very materially modify all our plans intended 
to increase the product of the soil. There are, we say, 
some plants which have no root whatever, as in the prick- 
ly-pear or Indian fig ; many are attached only to the hard 
surface of a stone, and propagate their kinds by off-sets, 
without any other vegetable organs. Now, there are some 
quadrupeds that appear to derive nourishment in the same 
way. The sloth never drinks : it imbibes moisture by its 
skin, it trembles at the feeling of rain ; so the olive cavy, 
and the ostrich, are noted by the Arabs as avoiding water, 
and yet these creatures are as juicy and well supplied with 
fluids as any with which we are acquainted. 

If leaves are necessary for the existence of the indivi- 
dual tree, the flowers are necessary as generative organs 
for the continuation of the species. Even in that class of 
plants where no flowers are distinct, still there is every 
reason to believe that the production of the seed is effected 
in the same way as in other plants. Mosses and lichens, 
which belong to this family, have no distinct roots, but 
they are furnished with filaments which perform the same 
functions ; and even in mushrooms there is a system for 
the absorption and exposure of the sap to the air. Of all 
parts of plants the flowers are most refined, the most beau- 
tiful in their structure, and appear as the master-work of 
nature in the vegetable kingdom. The elegance of their 

DO D 

tints, the variety of their forms, the delicacy of their orga- 
nization, and the adaptation of their parts, are all calcu- 
lated to awaken our curiosity and excite our admiration. 
The ancients had observed, that different date-trees bore 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MATTER. 231 

different flowers ; and that those trees producing flowers, 
containing in their centre organs termed by botanists 
"pistils" bore no fruit unless in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of such trees as produced flowers differently arranged 
in their central structure, and containing " stamens." The 
great naturalist, Linnaeus, has arranged the whole Vege- 
table Kingdom into twenty-four classes, as deducible from 
the numbers of these sexual organs in each flower. The 
numbers of the stamens and pistils in each, their arrange- 
ments, or their division, are the circumstances which guided 
him, and enabled him to form a system of botany admira- 
bly adapted to assist the memory, and denoting well the 
analogies of all the essential parts of plants. 

The Seed, the last production of vigorous vegetation, is 
wonderfully diversified in form. Being that part which is 
of the highest importance, it is found defended above all 
other parts of the plant; sometimes by soft pulpy sub- 
stances, in addition to a hard shell, as in apricots and 
plums ; by thick membranes, as in common garden peas 
and beans ; by hard shells, or a thick coating, as in corn 
and grasses. So, similarly, the eggs of the ostrich, which 
are destined to be hatched by the sun in the sand where 
they are deposited, are invested with a strong shell, not 
firmer, comparatively, than the encasement surrounding 
every one of the myriads of ova or eggs in the roe of a 
codfish or herring. If we were to pursue the analogy 
more closely still, between the structure of a grain of 
wheat and that of the egg of a bird or the ovum of a 
quadruped, we should find the parallelism singularly mi- 
nute and exact ; but this is the province of the physiolo- 
gist : it is enough for our purpose to cite a familiar illus- 
tration. When potatoes are cut in pieces for seed, every 
gardener knows that, if each separate piece have not an 
" eye" upon it, the fragment will not grow. If it vegetate, 
it will be from that living spot or " eye':" the remainder 
will serve to minister nutriment to the infant plant before 
it can pierce the soil ; it will strike upwards and down- 
wards; the original bit of potato will be absorbed, or 



232 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

perish. So, a common garden bean is divisible into two 
equal halves or lobes, which form the organ of nourish- 
ment ; but the young plant springs not from these, but 
from the plume or small w 7 hite point between their upper 
parts, and the young root is found like a small curved cone 
at the other end of the seed. In wheat, and many grasses, 
the organ of nourishment is not divisible as in a bean ; 
but the same principle holds true not only of all seeds, but 
of bird eggs, and the rudimentary ova of all animals. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Of the Elementary Composition of Water ; of the Composition of the 
Atmosphere ; and of the artificial Application of Water to Grass 
Lands. 

We have already traced some of the more prominent 
analogies obviously existing between vegetables regarded 
as alive, and animals. We have shown that the ultimate, 
and many of the proximate, elements of both are the same 
— that they are nourished or destroyed by the same agen- 
cies. Before we describe minutely the nature of the pro- 
cess of nutrition and growth, it is necessary to understand 
the chemical composition of the atmosphere, which is re- 
lated similarly to lungs as to leaves ; and of water, neces- 
sary alike to plants as to animals. 

If one measure of hydrogen gas, and half as much oxy- 
gen gas, or, by weight, eight grains of oxygen gas, and 
one grain of hydrogen, be mixed in a dry glass over mer- 
cury, and the mixture set on fire, the result will be the 
formation of pure water. So water is formed, and is some- 
times seen collected, from the burning of the common car- 
buretted hydrogen, in the street or shop gas-lamps : the 
effect being nothing more nor less than the combination of 
the oxygen of the air with the burning hydrogen. Water 



COMPOSITION OF AIR AND WATER. 233 

is the result of their union, and combustion, or burning, 
effects that union. The gas in the pipes would not, 
could not, burn, if a free supply of air, or rather of oxygen, 
contained in that air, were cut off; and water is the pro- 
duct of their union. So that perfectly pure water is, 
chemically speaking, not a simple undecompounded ele- 
ment, but a compound of two elements — oxygen and hy- 
drogen ; both of which, as elements, enter largely into the 
composition of both animal and vegetable matter. Oil and 
fat owe their utility in yielding light in lamps to the pre- 
sence of hydrogen. Its presence causes turpentine and 
resin to blaze and burn readily ; while oxygen is equally 
an ultimate ingredient in all vegetable and animal sub- 
stances. These details may appear scientific ; but the 
action of manure is not to be understood without them, or 
rather, the nature of vegetable and animal growth, and all 
that favors or retards it. 

The purest natural water we can obtain is procured by 
melting snow, or collecting rain-water, in stations distant 
from the smoke of a town. If pure water be requisite for 
the experiments of a chemist, it is generally obtained by 
distilling rain-water in glass vessels,— that is, raising it 
into steam by heat, then allowing that steam to condense, 
by passing it through cold pipes. The characters of abso- 
lutely pure water are — that it is perfectly transparent and 
colorless, limpid, not sparkling, insipid, unpleasant, and 
sickly to the taste, and is lighter than common river or 
spring water. One hundred cubic inches of water weigh 
2b2± grains; it is 828 times heavier than air; and when 
expanded into steam, occupies 1700 times its previous 
space. Steam is not nearly so heavy as the air. Water 
readily absorbs many gases : what is called soda-water, 
is water impregnated with fixed air, or carbonic acid gas. 
It absorbs amraoniacal gas readily in large quantities, 
forming what is sold in the shops as spirit of hartshorn. 

Of the constitution of Sea Water, the proportions and 
nature of its saline ingredients, one of their final uses in 
vegetation, and especially the relatively large proportion 
12 



234 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

of carbonic acid it contains, we will speak, when adverting 
to the necessity and wisdom of such arrangement. 

Neither is the atmosphere animals breathe and decom- 
pose, and in which living plants carry on analogous ope- 
rations, a simple element. Air is a compound of two 
gases, oxygen and nitrogen, in the proportion of two parts 
of nitrogen to one of oxygen. 100 cubic inches of air 
weigh 30 grains. The atmospheric pressure of the air 
upon the earth's surface, at the level of the sea, is equal 
to a weight of 15 pounds upon every square inch, and is 
capable of supporting a column of water 34 feet high, or 
of mercury, 30 inches. For this reason, a pump will not 
w T ork if the depth of the shaft be greater than 34 feet ; and 
the height to which the quicksilver will rise in the weather- 
glass, always corresponds to the pressure of the atmos- 
phere ; that is to say, the weight of the mercury in the 
tube is exactly equal to the weight of a column of air the 
same thickness, only the height of the atmosphere. The 
air receives its heat entirely from the earth : hence the 
phenomena of cold which we perceive the higher we as- 
cend from the earth's surface. 

If water be passed through a red-hot gun-barrel, it will 
be decomposed ; its oxygen will unite with the metal, its 
hydrogen will escape, and may be collected in the form of 
a gas, and preserved in a bladder. Many similar experi- 
ments demonstrate the composition of water. It may be 
made, in fact is made, in almost every instance where a 
combustible body unites with the oxygen of the air : it 
may be separated into its elements, — unmade, so to speak, 
by a variety of processes. Synthesis is the term chemists 
apply to the former, analysis, to the latter mode of de- 
monstrating its composition. 

Mow, it is most materially important, in connection ivith 
our future inquiries, to observe, that there are other matters, 
not essential to the composition either of air or water, that 
in nature are always found mechanically mixed up or as- 
sociated with each, and this as an express provision for the 
sustenance of animals and plants. 



COMPOSITION OF AIR AND WATER. 235 

The atmosphere is not compounded purely of oxygen 
and nitrogen : it contains carbonic acid and watery vapor. 

The proportion of carbonic acid in the atmosphere may 
be regarded as equal nearly to one part in a thousand, es- 
timated by weight. The quantity varies according to the 
seasons, but Ihe yearly average remains continually the 
same. 

And the rain that descends from the clouds contains 
ammonia, one of the elements of which, as previously 
stated, is nitrogen. Experiments confirm the theory upon 
which the presence of ammonia in rain-water might rea- 
sonably be expected. If a few hundred pounds of rain- 
water be carefully subjected to distillation, and the first 
two or three pounds evaporated, with the addition of a 
little muriatic acid, a very distinct crystallization of mu- 
riate of ammonia, or sal ammoniac, may be obtained, 
which crystals have a brownish-yellow color. If a little 
sulphuric or muriatic acid be added to a quantity of rain- 
water, and the mixture boiled to dryness, the ammonia 
remains as the residue, in combination with the acid em- 
ployed ; and it may be detected by the addition of a little 
powdered lime, which, combining with the acid, sets the 
ammonia free, and is recognized by its pungent smell. The 
sensation which is perceived upon moistening the hand 
with ram-water, so different from that produced by wash- 
ing it in pure distilled water, and to which the term soft- 
ness is applied, is owing to the presence of carbonate of 
ammonia in rain water. 

How this ammonia is generated in rain-water, the im- 
portance and utility of the fact, and the uses of carbonic 
acid in the atmosphere, are matters so closely identified 
with living processes in animals and plants, that we must 
here simply confine ourselves to the statement. We have 
now the preliminary materials for the examination of nu- 
tritive actions. When these, as they exist naturally, are 
understood, we shall be able to say what are those sub- 
stances called fertilizing, which may be useful in given 
instances as manure, whether their application may be 



236 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

suitable or injurious ; just as a knowledge of anatomy and 
physiology is necessary to the physician who would amend 
the diseased conditions of the body. He must know what 
is the nature of healthy and ordinary action in the living 
frame, before he can understand and alter diseased action. 
The artificial application of ivater in large quantities to 
the land, is a subject well understood, and its effects accu- 
rately marked and recognized in many parts of the world 
that have been regarded as strictly agricultural localities 
during a long succession of ages. Irrigation is, in truth, 
a mode of applying the weakest of liquid manures, on a 
very bold scale, to grass-lands- Almost every farmer has 
a mode of accounting for the highly-fertilizing effects of 
irrigation. Davy added another to the list of explanations. 
He thought that a winter-flooding protected the grass from 
the injurious effects of the frost. He examined, with a 
thermometer, and with his usual address, the water-mea- 
dows near Hungerford, in Berkshire, and ascertained that 
the temperature of the soil was ten degrees higher than the 
surface of the water, and that, too, on a frosty March morn- 
ing. He remarked, also, a fact that most farmers will con- 
firm, that those waters which breed the best fish are ever 
the best fitted for watering meadows. He appears, how- 
ever, never to have steadily investigated the chemical com- 
position of river-water with regard to its uses in irrigation ; 
and in consequence, he knew little of the value of some of 
its impurities to vegetation. Thus, if the river-water con- 
tains gypsum (sulphate of lime), which it certainly does 
if the water is hard, it must, under ordinary circumstances, 
on this account alone, be highly fertilizing to meadows, 
since the grasses contain this salt in very sensible propor- 
tions. Calculating that one part of sulphate of lime is 
contained in every two thousand parts of the river-water, 
and that every square yard of dry meadow-soil absorbs 
only eight gallons of water, then it will be found, that by 
every flooding, more than one hundred weight and a half 
of gypsum per acre is diffused through the soil in the water; 
a quantity equal to that generally adopted by those who 
spread gypsum on their clover, lucern, and sainfoin crops 



COMPOSITION OF AIR AND WATER. 237 

as a manure, either in a state of powder, or as it exists in 
peat-ashes. 

And, if we apply the same calculation to the organic 
substances ever more or less contained in flood waters, and 
if we allow only 25 parts of animal and vegetable remains 
to be present in a thousand parts of river-water, then we 
shall find, taking the same data, that every soaking with 
such water will add to the meadow nearly two tons per 
acre of animal and vegetable matters ; which, allowing in 
the case of w T ater meadows five floodings per annum, is 
equal to a yearly application of ten tons of organic matter. 
The quantity of foreign substances present in river-water, 
although commonly less, yet very often exceeds the pro- 
portion we have calculated to exist.* 

* As the introduction of water meadows would be of inestimable 
value to our country, we here give an extract from Vol. I. of the Ame- 
rican Agriculturist on this subject : — 

" All who have ever heard of the overflowings of the Nile, or passed 
up the magnificent valley of the Connecticut, along the banks of the 
Genesee, and the wide-spread delta of the Mississippi, and hundreds of 
others of our rivers, cannot but have noticed the surprising fertility 
given to the land, in consequence of the annual rise of their waters, 
and the deposite from the enriching sediment ; it is to avail themselves 
of something like the advantages of these great overflowings, on a 
small scale, from their own little rivers, that the English landholders 
have constructed their water meadows, and in some instances have 
gone to a very great expense in so doing. It is computed that there 
are at least 70,000 acres of water meadows in Gloucestershire, Berks, 
Wilts and Hants, which have been made at an expense of from 51. to 
451. per acre, the average not being less perhaps than 151. or say $75 
per acre. Johnson asserts, that in 1821 forty acres of the Freegate 
Whins, ten of which were made from a poor sandy soil, thrown up by 
the sea in the vicinity of Edinburgh,, cost 1000Z., and let for about 6001. 
per annum, and are in a constant state of improvement. The Craig- 
intinny meadows, near the same place, let for 20/. to 30Z. per acre per 
annum, while " in 1826, part of the Earl of Moray's meadow fetched 
571. ($275) per acre per annum." But it must be recollected that 
these are in the vicinity of a large town, where the grass is cut daily, 
and carried in fresh, and retailed at high prices for soiling. In no 
other way could these meadows command such exorbitant rents. They 
yield four to five crops of grass every season, which, if dried, it is esti- 
mated would nearly equal two tons in weight at each cutting. But the 
water used here for overflowing is unusually rich, it receiving the wash 
of all the sewers of this large town, and hence their greatly increased 
fertilizing effects." — Am. Ed. 



238 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

There is no stream more celebrated for its prolific water 
meadows than the Itchen in Hampshire ; and in no part of 
England is the system of irrigation better understood and 
more zealously followed. The water of this river, taken 
from above the city of Winchester, contains in 10,000 
parts, after all its mechanically suspended matters have 
subsided, about 2.2-3d parts, namely — 

Organic matter 0.02 parts 

Carbonate of lime (chalk) . . 1.89 

Sulphate of lime (gypsum) . . 0.72 

Muriate of soda (common salt) . 0.01 

The water of lakes is usually still more surcharged with 
foreign substances than those of rivers ; and, from the use 
of such waters, especially if an occasional or winter stream 
of water passes through them, we have witnessed great 
fertilizing effects produced on meadow land. 



CHAPTER V. 

Of the Nature of Vegetable Growth ; the true use of Vegetable Mould 
or Humus ; and of the Sources of the Elementary Constituents of 
Plants. 

From the facts detailed in the foregoing chapters, the 
development or nutrition and growth of a plant requires 
the presence, first, of substances yielding carbon and nitro- 
gen as elements to the growing structure ; secondly, of 
water, furnishing in itself two very important elements, 
namely, oxygen and hydrogen, besides adventitious matters; 
and lastly, a soil, to yield the saline, earthy, metallic, or 
other inorganic materials essential to vegetable life. 

The fertility of every soil is generally supposed to depend 
on the presence in it of a peculiar substance, named "hu- 
mus" This substance, incorrectly supposed to form the 
principal nutriment of plants, and to be extracted from 
them by the soil in which they grow, is nothing more than 
vegetable mould, the product of the decay of other plants. 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 239 

Adherence to the above incorrect opinion, has hitherto 
rendered it impossible for the true theory of the nutritive 
process in vegetables to become known, and has thus de- 
prived us of our best guide to a rational practice in agri- 
culture. Any great improvement in that most important 
of all arts, is inconceivable without a deeper and more per- 
fect acquaintance with the substances which really nourish 
plants, and with the sources whence they are derived. It 
was supposed that by the aid of water " humus" is ren- 
dered capable of being absorbed by the roots of plants. If 
it be, it must be in some altered form ; for if a portion of 
good mould be long subjected to the action of water, that 
fluid will not dissolve more than a hundred-thousandth part 
of its weight, and contain only soluble organic matters, and 
the salts which are contained in the rain-water which has 
fallen upon it. Decayed oak wood, beech, and fir, yield 
the same results. 

Let us inquire whence the grass in a meadow, or the 
wood in a forest, receives the carbon essential to the for- 
mation of that woody fibre constituting the principal 
weight and solid bulk of the tree or plant. Whole tracts 
of open country in the green wilds of America, immense 
woods and forests in all parts of the world, receive no 
carbon in the form of manure ; how does it happen that 
the soil, instead of being exhausted through the annual 
production of vegetation for ages, becomes every year 
richer in carbon 1 In other words, a certain quantity of 
carbon is taken every year from an unmanured forest or 
meadow, in the form of growing wood or grasses ; and in 
spite of this, the quantity of carbon in the soil augments ; 
it becomes richer in vegetable mould, in humus — so much 
so, that in process of time it will not support the trees 
which stood upon it : they fall, and the surface becomes a 
peat moss, burying huge trunks in its bosom.* Plants 

* This is a great mistake on the part of the author in regard to 
American forests. We scarcely know of a single instance of their 
becoming a peat moss ; on the contrary, they almost universally retain 
their original character. — Ameb. Ed. 



240 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

give back more carbon to the soil than they take from it ; 
it is evident, then, that their growth must depend on the 
reception of carbon as food from another quarter. It is 
not denied that manure, rightly chosen and applied, exerts 
an influence upon the growth of plants ; but it neither 
serves for the production of the carbonaceous woody fibre, 
nor has any influence upon it, because we find that the 
quantity of carbon produced by manured land is not greater 
than that yielded by lands which are not manured. The 
discussion as to what manure really produces, has nothing 
to do with the present question, which is, the origin of the 
carbon as the principal element of the woody fibre. It 
must be derived from other sources ; and as the soil does 
not yield it, we are driven to look for it in the atmosphere. 

Now 7 , we have already stated that the air contains car- 
bonic acid ; and if the reason of its presence there be not, 
that it may yield carbon to plants, what other use can be 
assigned to it ? Animals do not derive their chief suste- 
nance from the air : to them pure and unmixed carbonic 
acid is poisonous ; though taken into the stomach it is 
grateful. Besides, we know it to be a fact, that daring 
the sunshine of day the leaves of plants are continually 
absorbing this very gas, and giving out oxygen ; and if 
not for their nutrition and growth, for what other purpose 1 
Carbonic acid being a compound of carbon and oxygen, 
they retain the carbon and give out the oxygen. This has 
been long known ; but it is only a recent discovery, that 
the sole source of woody fibre is the atmosphere. 

Mould, or humus, can only arise from the decay of 
plants. No primitive mould can have existed ; for plants 
must have preceded the mould, which this theory assumes 
as necessary to their existence. Whence, then, did the 
first vegetables derive their carbon, if not, as now, from 
the surrounding air ? We shall arrive at satisfactory con- 
clusions respecting the mode in which animal, as well as 
vegetable, life and nutrition are maintained, by observing 
how the uninterrupted uniformity of proportion is secured 
in the quantities of the elements composing the atmosphere. 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 241 

How does it happen that, with such an immense expendi- 
ture of oxygen as occurs in the combustion of countless 
millions of tons of coal, and in the consumption of that gas 
in the lungs of the myriads of creatures that live on the 
earth's surface, still the composition of the atmosphere is 
invariably the same ? 

The answer to this question depends upon another. 
What becomes of the carbonic acid which is produced by 
the breathing of animals, and in every instance where a 
combustible body is burnt 1 There is no change of 
volume ; for the oxygen extracted from the atmosphere 
by a coal fire is replaced by the same bulk of carbonic 
acid, and similarly in every breath we draw. The immense 
masses of carbonic acid which flow into the atmosphere 
from so many causes ought perceptibly, after 6000 years, 
to increase its quantity. 

A cause must exist which prevents the increase of car- 
bonic acid, by removing that which is continually forming; 
and there must be some means of replacing the oxygen 
which is removed from the air by combustion, breathing, 
and putrefaction. 

Both these causes are united and displayed in the 'pro- 
cess of vegetable as well as of animal life. The facts we 
have already stated prove that the woody fibre, or carbon 
of plants, must be derived exclusively from the atmosphere. 
Now carbon exists in the air only in the form of carbonic 
acid, and, therefore, in a state of combination with oxygen. 

Besides, as already stated, carbon and the elements of 
water form the principal constituents of vegetables. Now, 
the proportion of oxygen in the whole mass of a plant is 
less than in carbonic acid. It is, therefore, certain that 
plants must possess the power of decomposing carbonic 
acid, since they appropriate the carbon for their own use. 
The formation of woody fibre, gum, starch, and the various 
substances containing carbon — that taken together com- 
pose a plant — must necessarily be attended with the sepa- 
ration of the carbon of the carbonic acid in the air from 
the oxygen of that acid. This oxygen is returned to the 
12* 



242 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

atmosphere, as experiment and observation prove, though 
its source is only just understood. And the carbon enters 
into composition with water, or its elements in the plant. 
The atmosphere must thus receive a volume of oxygen for 
every volume of carbonic acid which has been abstracted 
from it and decomposed. The leaves and green parts of 
a plant emit an equal quantity of oxygen in exchange for 
the carbonic acid they absorb, and they will do this even 
when torn from the stem on which they were just growing. 
Each acre of land which produces eight hundred weight 
of carbon (say woody fibre) gives annually to the atmo- 
sphere about two thousand six hundred pounds of free 
oxygen gas ; so that an acre of meadow, wood, or culti- 
vated land, replaces, therefore, in the atmosphere as much 
oxygen as is exhausted by eight hundred weight of carbon, 
either in its ordinary destruction by burning, or in the 
action of the lungs of animals. 

Plants not only separate all noxious matters from the 
air, — they form, by this arrangement, an inexhaustible 
source of pure oxygen to supply that loss the air is con- 
stantly sustaining. Animals, on the other hand, throw off 
carbon from their lungs, which plants take in by their 
leaves ; and thus the composition, or the relative propor- 
tions of the elements forming that medium in which they 
both exist, is maintained constantly unchanged. 

Many conditions are necessary for the life and growth 
of plants. Each kind requires special conditions; and 
should but one of these be wanting, although all the rest 
be supplied, the plants will not be brought to maturity. 
It is in vegetable as in animal life : a mother crams her 
child exclusively w T ith arrow-root ; it becomes fat, it is 
true ; but alas ! it is ricketty, and gets its teeth very 
slowly and with difficulty. Mamma is ignorant, or never 
thinks that her offspring cannot make bone, or what is the 
same thing, phosphate of lime, the principal bulk of bone, 
out of starch. It does its best ; and were it not for a little 
milk and bread, perhaps now and then a little meat and 
soup, it would have no bones and no teeth at all. Farmers 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 243 

keep poultry ; and what is true of fowls, is true of a cab- 
bage, a turnip, or an ear of wheat. If we mix with the 
food of fowls a sufficient quantity of egg-shells, or chalk, 
which they eat greedily, they will lay many more eggs 
than before. A well-fed fowl is disposed to lay a vast 
number of eggs ; but cannot do so without the materials 
for the shells, however nourishing in other respects her 
food may be. A fowl, with the best will in the world, 
not finding any lime in the soil, nor mortar from walls, nor 
calcareous matter in her food, is incapacitated from laying 
any eggs at all. Let farmers lay such facts as these, 
which are matter of common observation, to heart, and 
transfer the analogy, as they justly may do, to the habits 
of plants, which are as truly alive, and answer as closely 
to evil or judicious treatment as their own horses. The 
organs of plants, like those of animals, contain substances 
of the most different kinds. Some are formed solely of 
carbon and the elements of water : as, for instance, woody 
fibre, resin, gum, and starch ; some contain nitrogen : as, 
for instance, the gluten of wheat ; and in all plants we 
find metals in a state of combination with oxygen. The 
food which can serve for the production or increase of 
any, or of all the organs of a plant, must necessarily con- 
tain the elements of that part, or set of parts. Dogs die 
although fed with jelly, which contains nitrogen in abun- 
dance : they cannot live upon white bread, sugar, or starch, 
if these are given as food to the exclusion of other sub- 
stances. Can it be concluded from this, that these things 
contain no elements suited for nutrition ? Certainly not. 

Because a vegetable is alive, it has the power of con- 
stantly reproducing itself; for this it requires a supply of 
substances which contain the constituent elements of its 
own substance, and which are susceptible of undergoing 
the necessary transformation. All the organs together, 
whether of animal or vegetable life, have not the power 
to generate, that is, to produce out of nothing a single ele- 
ment. A dog would die in the vacuum of an air-pump, 
even though supplied with a superabundance of food ; it 



244 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

will die in the air if no food be given to it ; it will die in 
oxygen gas, however freely it may be supplied with nou- 
rishment. But it is not hence to be concluded, that neither 
flesh, nor air, nor oxygen, is fitted to support life. They 
are all admirably calculated to do so ; so it is just as rea- 
sonable to expect to bring a plant to perfection, — wheat, 
for instance, — which, in its healthy and natural state, con- 
tains silica or potash, if it be planted in a soil destitute of 
such inorganic materials, or to which they have not been 
added. "When we are acquainted with the nature of a 
single cubic inch of that soil, and know the composition 
of air and rain-water, we are in possession of all the con- 
ditions necessary to their life. The source of the different 
elements entering into the composition of plants, cannot 
possibly escape us, if we know in what form they take up 
their nourishment, and compare its composition with that 
of the vegetable substances which compose their structure. 

Vegetables undergo, after death, two processes of decom- 
position : one of these is fermentation, the other is 'putre- 
faction. Decaying leaves, stalks, or roots, are, in fact, 
undergoing a slow process, analogous to combustion ; inas- 
much as it is the combination of the combustible parts of a 
plant (structures that will burn) with the oxygen of the 
atmosphere. 

The decay of w r oody fibre (the principal constituent of 
all plants) is accompanied by appearances of a peculiar 
kind. This substance, in contact with air or oxygen gas, 
and no longer preserved from chemical decomposition by 
the living principle which has now left it, unites with that 
gas, and the product is an equal volume of carbonic acid. 
The property which woody fibre in a state of decay has to 
form carbonic acid with the surrounding oxygen of the 
atmosphere, diminishes as the decay advances, till it is 
complete, and ceases. Mould constitutes the principal 
part of brown coal and peat. An atmosphere of carbonic 
acid, formed at the expense of the oxygen of the air, 
surrounds every particle of decaying vegetable matter; 
hence the value of plowing, digging, and otherwise loos- 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GKOWTH. 245 

ening the soil : it permits the access of air. An atmo- 
sphere of carbonic acid is therefore contained in every fer- 
tile soil, and is the first and most important food for the 
young plants before they reach the surface. The leaves 
of trees which fall in the forest in autumn, and old roots 
of grass in a meadow, are converted into what is termed 
humus by the same agency ; but humus does not nourish 
plants directly, by being taken up in its unaltered state, 
but by presenting a sloiv and lasting source of carbonic 
acid, which is absorbed by the roots of plants, and forms 
their principal nutriment at a time when, being destitute 
of leaves, they cannot, as yet, extract food from the atmo- 
sphere : hence one reason of the value of plowing, dig- 
ging, and otherwise lightening the soil, by permitting the 
access of air, and, consequently, of carbonic acid to the 
seeds and roots. Seeds .should always be sown, so as to 
be fully exposed to the influence of the air ; and one cause 
of the unproductiveness of cold, clayey, adhesive soils is, 
that the seed is coated with matter which the air cannot 
get at. In sandy soils, the earth is mostly sufficiently 
penetrable by the atmosphere ; but in clayey soils, there 
can scarcely be too great a mechanical tearing up and 
division, in the process of tillage. Many plowmen know 
the fact, without knowing the reason of it : however, any 
seed not fully supplied with air, always produces a weak 
and diseased plant. In this way, then, we see the true 
uses of the vegetable decaying mould, when well torn up 
by the plow. The roots perform the after-functions of 
the leaves : they extract from the soil the carbonic acid 
generated from the humus, or vegetable mould : they 
decompose that acid, and absorb the carbon. When a 
plant is quite matured, and when the' organs by which it 
obtains food from the air are fully formed, the carbonic 
acid of the soil is no longer required. 

If turnips be sown in a soil capable of yielding as much 
nourishment as they will take up, they will attain a much 
larger size than under the reverse circumstances. The 
size of a plant is always proportioned to the surface of 



246 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

the organs which are destined to convey food to it. A 
plant gains another mouth and stomach with every new 
fibre of root, and everv new leaf. 

Let us suppose a plant fully grown. All the necessary 
amount of woody fibre has been formed by the leaves. 
But the action of the leaf does not cease. Carbon is still 
absorbed ; the expenditure of nutriment, the supply of 
which continues the same, takes a new direction. The 
leaves now produce sugar, starch, gum, or acids, which 
were previously formed by the roots when these substances 
were necessary for the development of the stem, buds, 
leaves, and branches of the rising plant. The direction of 
the nutriment again changes, and blossoms are produced. 
The functions of most plants cease upon the ripening of 
their fruit, because the products of their action are no 
longer needed. They now yield to the chemical influence 
of the oxygen of the air : their feeble vitality weakly opposes 
the decomposition which awaits all dead matter; they 
change color, fall off, and become converted into the mould 
of which we have been speaking. 

A cubic inch of sulphuretted hydrogen gas introduced 
into the human lungs would cause inscant death ; but it 
is often formed, under a variety of circumstances, in the 
bowels without injurious effects. Each organ, whether of 
an animal or a vegetable, extracts from the food presented 
to it what it requires for its own action and sustenance ; 
while the remaining absorbed matters, which are not 
nutritive, combine together, and are separated as excre- 
ment. The excrementitious matters of one organ come in 
contact with another during their passage through the 
plant or animal, and, in consequence, suffer new transfor- 
mations : the useless matters rejected by one organ contain 
the elements for the nourishment of another, till what is 
utterly useless is expelled from the system, by contrivances 
for that purpose. So the kidneys, liver, and lungs, are 
organs of excretion : the first separate from the body sub- 
stances in which a large proportion of nitrogen is con- 
tained ; the second, those with an excess of carbon ; and 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 247 

the third, such as are composed, principally, of more oxygen 
and hydrogen than is wanted. All superabundant nitro- 
gen is thrown out from the body as a liquid excrement 
through the urinary passages : all solid substances, inca- 
pable of further useful transformation, pass out by the 
intestinal canal ; and all gaseous matters by the lungs. 

The presence of life prevents common chemical decom- 
position or putrefaction : the power to effect the trans- 
formations essential to nutrition and growth does not 
belong to it. Each such transformation is owing to a dis- 
turbance in the attraction of the elements of a given com- 
pound, and is, consequently, a purely chemical process. 
Similar changes of existing compounds are in constant 
progress during the whole life of a plant ; in consequence 
of which there are produced gaseous matters, thrown off 
by the leaves and blossoms, solid excrements deposited in 
the bark, and fluid soluble substances which are excreted 
by the roots. Through the expulsion of these matters 
unfitted for nutrition, the soil receives back again the 
greatest part of the carbon, which it had at first yielded to 
the young plants as food in the shape of carbonic acid, 
from the decaying mould. 

Having disposed of the question as to the origin of 
carbon in°plants, and examined the relation between vege- 
table mould and the springing vegetable, we must next 
trace the source of the hydrogen and nitrogen they con- 
tain. 

All the hydrogen necessary for the formation of a plant 
or animal is supplied by the decomposition of water. 
From their generating wax, fats, and volatile oils, con- 
taining hydrogen in large quantity, and no oxygen, we 
may be certain that plants possess the property of decom- 
posing water ; because from no other body, with which 
they are placed in contact, could they obtain the hydrogen 
which exists as an element in those matters. The process 
of vegetable growth, in its simplest form, consists in the 
extraction of hydrogen from water, and carbon from car- 
bonic acid. The green resinous principle of the leaf 



248 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

diminishes in quantity while oxygen is absorbed. We 
can explain in a similar manner, the formation of all the 
component substances of plants which contain no nitrogen. 
During the progress of growth, plants appropriate carbon 
from the carbonic acid found in the air, and hydrogen from 
the decomposition of water ; the oxygen of which fluid is 
set at liberty, together with a part, or all of that contained 
in the carbonic acid. Decay, then, or vegetable putrefac- 
tion, is that great operation of Nature by which that 
oxygen which was consumed by plants during life is again 
returned to the atmosphere; for water is essential to such 
putrefaction. 

As to the origin of nitrogen in plants, we may observe, 
that it exists in every part of the vegetable structure. No 
plant would attain maturity, even in the richest vegetable 
mould, unless nitrogen were supplied to it. How, it may 
be asked then, and in what form, does Nature furnish nitro- 
gen to assist in the formation of vegetable albumen and 
gluten, to fruits and seeds ? 

This question is susceptible of a very simple solution. 
Plants, as we know, grow perfectly well in pure charcoal, 
if supplied at the same time — not with river or spring, or 
perfectly pure water, but with rain- water. Now, rain- 
water can contain nitrogen only in two forms — either as 
dissolved atmospheric air (which, of course, contains 
nitrogen), or as ammonia, of which nitrogen is one element. 
We have observed, in speaking of the composition of 
water, that ram-water is found to contain ammonia ; and 
this is the practical application of the fact. Pure air may, 
for our present purpose, be considered as oxygen and 
nitrogen in certain unalterable proportions, in a state of 
mixture ; the carbonic acid and ammonia which float in 
the atmosphere may be regarded as accidental ingredients. 
If we were to suppose that plants derived their nitrogen 
directly from the atmosphere, — that is, by depriving the 
air of a portion of that nitrogen which is essential to its 
constitution — we are met by many difficulties. Rain-wa- 
ter does not yield nitrogen from pure air, which it may 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH, 249 

hold in solution or suspension, but from ammonia, which, 
rising from putrefied animal remains, becomes readily 
dissolved in the first mass of watery vapor that may pre- 
sent itself. We have no reason to believe that the nitro- 
gen of the air takes part in the processes of nutrition in 
plants and animals; on the contrary, we know that many 
vegetables emit, or give off the nitrogen which is absorbed 
by their roots. But, on the other hand, there are numer- 
ous facts, showing that the formation in plants of sub- 
stances containing nitrogen, as gluten, for instance, in corn, 
takes place in proportion to the quantity of this element, 
which is conveyed to their roots in the state of soluble 
salts of ammonia, derived from the putrefaction of animal 
matter. 

All animal bodies, during their decay, yield the nitrogen, 
which they abundantly contain, to the atmosphere in the 
form of ammonia. A generation of a thousand millions of 
human beings is renewed every thirty years : countless 
millions of animals have, during that period, ceased to 
live. Where, but floating in the atmosphere, is the 
nitrogen their bodies contained during life ? Without 
the occurrence of 'putridity and the generation of ammonia, 
and its diffusion in the air, the wheels of nature would soon 
stop — vegetable and animal life could go on no^ longer. 
Ammonia is the simplest of all the compounds of nitrogen : 
the reader will remember our previous statement, that 
hydrogen and nitrogen combine to form ammonia. 
Hydrogen is that element for which nitrogen possesses 
the most powerful affinity. 

The nitrogen, then, of putrefied animals is contained in 
the atmosphere (combined with hydrogen) as ammonia, in 
the form of a gas which is capable of entering into com- 
bination with carbonic acid, and of forming a volatile salt 
very soluble in water. Ammonia, therefore, cannot remain 
long in the air, as every shower of rain must dissolve it 
and convey it to the earth's surface, to be absorbed and 
decomposed by the roots of plants. W r e ought to expect, 
and such is the fact, that razn-water must at all times 



250 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

contain ammonia, though not always in equal quantity. If 
a pint of rain-water contain only a quarter of a grain of am- 
monia, then a field of forty thousand square feet must 
receive yearly upwards of eighty pounds of ammonia, or 
sixty-five pounds of nitrogen ; for it is ascertained that the 
annual fall of rain water over this extent of surface is at 
least 2,500,000 pounds. This is much more nitrogen than 
is contained in the form of vegetable albumen and gluten in 
2650 pounds of wood, 2S00 pounds of hay, or 200 cwt. of 
beet-root, which would be the yearly produce of such a 
field ; but it is less than the straw, roots, and grain of corn 
which might grow on the same surface would contain. 
Animal manure, as we shall presently show, acts only by 
the formation of ammonia. Its employment in the culti- 
vation of grain, and of fodder for cattle, furnishes convin- 
cing proof that the nitrogen of vegetables is derived from 
ammonia. The quantity of gluten in wheat, rye, and 
barley, is very different ; and they contain nitrogen in 
varying proportions. Even in samples of the same seed 
the quantity varies ; and why ? Evidently because one 
variety has been better fed with its own appropriate 
fertilizer, than another which has been reared on a soil less 
accurately adapted by artificial means for its growth. 
French wheat contains 12 per cent, of gluten; Bavarian, 
24 per cent. Sir H. Davy obtained 19 per cent, from 
winter, and 24 from summer wheat; from Sicilian 21, 
from Barbary wheat 19 per cent. Such great differences 

MUST BE OWING TO SOME CAUSE, AND THIS WE FIND IN THE 

different methods of cultivation. An increase of ani- 
mal manure gives rise not only to an increase in the 
number of seeds, but also to a remarkable difference in the 
proportion of gluten which those seeds contain. Among 
manures of animal origin there is great diversity. Cow 
dung contains but a small proportion of nitrogen. One 
hundred parts of wheat, grown on a soil to which this 
material was applied, afforded only 11 parts of gluten, and 
64 of starch ; while the same quantity of wheat, grown on 
a soil fertilized with human urine, yielded 35 per cent, of 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 251 

gluten, and of course a smaller proportion of less valuable 
ingredients. During the putrefaction of urine, ammoniacal 
salts are formed in large quantity, it may be said, exclu- 
sively; for under the influence of warmth and moisture, 
urea, the most prominent ingredient of urine, is converted 
into carbonate of ammonia. Putrid urine is employed in 
Flanders as a manure with the best results. The barren 
soil on the coast of Peru is rendered fertile by means of a 
manure called guano, which is collected from several 
islands in the South Sea. It forms a layer several feet in 
thickness upon the surface of these islands, and consists of 
the putrid excrements of innumerable sea-fowl that remain 
on them during the breeding season. This substance has 
recently been imported in large quantities into England ; 
and its fertilizing powers are very extraordinary. Its price, 
about <£18 ($90) per ton, is a serious objection ; and since 
the nitrogen it contains forms its principal recommendation, 
doubtlessly other matters nearer home will not be wasted, 
or their value unknown and disregarded, as to a great 
extent they have been. As to the practical results of the 
application of guano, an intelligent agriculturist in the 
neighborhood of Hamburg has forwarded the annexed 
remarks to the Editor of the Gardener's Chronicle. He 
observes that "Most of the experiments with guano in the 
vicinity of this city have been made on meadows and lawns. 
On these it has produced the best possible effects; so that, 
for instance, at Flottbeck, the patches manured with guano 
presented not only a finer and darker green, but the grass 
was closer and more rich ; so that, comparing it with 
patches not guanised,the produce of the former may, with- 
out exaggeration, be stated to be double. To give an idea 
of the extraordinary forcing qualities of guano, we may 
mention that at Flottbeck, on a plot of grass managed after 
the English fashion, the second cutting of the grass was 
necessarily five days after the first, while the grass growing 
close by (which had not been guanised), although healthy 
and vigorous, required double the time to arrive at the 
same state of progress. It deserves to be stated as some- 



252 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

thing remarkable, that ,on the guanised spot, the dew 
appeared in the morning much stronger on the tops of the 
leaves, than on the part unguanised. In an experiment 
made by M. Staudinger on a barren hill, composed of 
granite or quartz, the guanised spot exhibited a dark bluish 
green sward, while round about nothing but barrenness 
was to be seen. If, therefore, a land-owner wishes to 
cover bleak hungry pasture in a short time with nutritious 
grass for cattle or sheep, the guano certainly is the thing 
to do it. It would not only produce a plentiful fodder in 
the autumn, where cattle can be well nourished and pre- 
pared for the winter, but such guanised pasture will bring a 
heavy crop early in the spring. Guano has also been 
used advantageously on a sour meadow, overgrown with 
horsetails ; and it produced, instead of reeds and bull- 
rushes, a dense turf of sweet grass, and the horsetail 
almost disappeared. Thus, in the first place, more grass 
is obtained, which may be put down as double the former 
crops ; and then the grass is very much improved in quality. 
Of course good drainage must be attended to on each 
meadow, if the result is expected to be complete. In using 
guano we must be careful to pulverise it well ; because, 
on account of its tenacity, it will form into lumps, and on 
places where it lies too thick, it will burn the grass, 
although, subsequently, even on such places a luxuriant 
herbage will spring up. Experiments with guano on 
spring crops have been as successful at Flottbeck, with 
both wheat and rye, as on the above meadow. The wheat 
manured in the spring with guano is much superior to that 
manured in the ordinary way, both in grain and straw. The 
following experiment was tried on a spot of almost blowing 
sand : — ' On the 18th March, several square rods in the 
above locality, planted with winter rye, were strewed with 
guano. The spot thus manured was in a short time not 
only conspicuous for its dark green color, but the tiller 
became so luxuriant as to cover the whole surface. Not- 
withstanding a drought of two months, the guanised crops 
remained in the same flourishing condition ; whilst the 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 253 

other rye standing close by had a weak and sickly ap- 
pearance. Subsequently the former attained the height of 
five or six feet, with ears five inches long, with strong 
plump grain ; whilst the latter were scarcely half that 
height in straw, and their ears were barren and empty.' 
This experiment speaks in favor of guano in preference to 
other manure in another respect. If a light sandy soil like 
the above is manured too much with common dung, and if 
there follows a luxuriant vegetation, with dark green 
foliage, we may be sure that, if there be subsequently any 
long drought, or sudden change of temperature from great 
heat to intense cold, rust will follow as a matter of course ; 
whilst in the above experiment, notwithstanding a nine- 
weeks' drought, and some intervening night frosts, the 
growth of the guanised rye was uniformly good up to 
the ripening of grain — a sufficient proof that the guano 
must possess the property of attracting and retaining the 
fine vapor contained in the air. Hence the fact is to be 
explained why dew was more apparent on the guanised 
turf than on that not subjected to that process. As we 
know that in general, during long drought, the action of 
dung — in fact of every manure — ceases ; and as it is light 
sandy soil which first suffers from drought, it must be 
evident what valuable manure guano is, not only on 
pastures, but for winter rye, our chief crop on light land. 
If an acre of land is dressed with 125 lbs. of guano, an 
abundant crop of grain and straw will fully repay the 
expenses incurred. If such a rye-field is laid down in 
spring with meadow catstail grass (Phleum pratense) and 
white clover, a heavy grass crop in the autumn would still 
increase the advantages already mentioned. As rape can 
by no means be too luxuriant, guano would produce an 
extraordinary result on it." 

If a soil consist only of sand and clay, and be deficient 
of organic matter or the decaying remnants of animal or 
vegetable life, it is sufficient, and chemically correct, to 
add to it guano, in order to ensure a plentiful crop. Guano 
consists of ammonia in separate combination with uric, 



254 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

phosphoric, oxalic, and carbonic acids, together with a 
few earthy salts and some impurities. If guano be the 
fertilizer employed, it is valuable, chiefly from the ammonia 
it contains, and ammonia is valuable because one of its 
elements is nitrogen, which is yielded to the plants. Am- 
monia assists not only in the formation of gluten in wheat, 
but also in the production of vegetable albumen, one of the 
principal constituents of plants, and it is ammonia which 
forms the red and blue coloring of flowers. Nitrates, 
that is, earthy or metallic substances, combined with nitric 
acid (which nitric acid is itself a compound of nitrogen 
and oxygen), are necessary constituents of several plants 
which thrive only when ammonia is present, — hence the 
value of nitrate of soda. The influence of the rays 
of the sun is to effect the disengagement of oxygen from 
the stem and leaves of plants (as previously stated), which 
oxygen, seizing upon the nitrogen contained in ammoni- 
acal matters, forms nitric acid, found in union with certain 
bases in many vegetables. In this way ammonia, by its 
transformation, furnishes nitric acid to the tobacco plant, 
that is, if it be found growing in a soil completely free 
from nitre or saltpetre, which is not nitrate of soda, but, in 
chemical language, nitrate of potass. The urine of man 
and of animals living upon flesh contains a large quantity 
of nitrogen, partly in the form of phosphates, partly as 
urea, a substance naturally peculiar to urine. Urea is 
transformed by the putrefactive process into carbonate of 
ammonia ; that is to say, it takes the form of the identical 
salt which is always present in rain-water. Human urine 
is the most powerful manure for all vegetables which 
contain nitrogen ; that of horses and horned cattle contains 
less of this element, but infinitely more than the solid 
excrements of these animals. 

In the face of such facts as these, is it not pitiable to 
observe how T the urine of the stable or cow-shed is often 
permitted to run off, to sink uselessly into the earth, or to 
form a pool in the middle of a farm-yard, from which, as 
it putrefies, the ammonia formed in it is rapidly and com- 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 255 

pletely escaping into the atmosphere, to be of as great 
utility in that volatile form to a neighbor's acres as to those 
nearer home ? 

It should be the care of the farmer so to employ all the 
substances containing nitrogen which his farm affords in 
the shape of animal excrements, that they shall serve as 
nutriment to his own fields. This will not be the case, 
unless they are properly preserved and distributed over 
the soil. A heap of manure lying unemployed would serve 
him no more than other people, if the nitrogen it contains 
be allowed to form ammonia, by combining with hydro- 
gen. All animal matters emit carbonic acid and ammo- 
nia as long as any nitrogen remains in them. The residue 
is a nearly worthless carbonaceous mass. All animal ex- 
crements emit carbonic acid and ammonia as long as nitro- 
gen exists in them. In every stage of their putrefaction 
an escape of ammonia from them may be induced by mois- 
tening them with pearl-ashes dissolved in water, the am- 
monia being apparent to the senses by its pungent effect 
on the nostrils. This ammonia, evolved from manure, is 
imbibed by the soil either in solution in water, or in the 
form of gas ; and thus it is that plants may artificially be 
made to receive a larger supply of nitrogen than is natu- 
rally afforded to them by the surrounding atmosphere. 
Cultivated plants receive, of course, the same quantity of 
nitrogen from the air as trees, shrubs, and wild plants ; 
but this, of course, is not enough for the purposes of agri- 
culture ; cabbages, wheat, potatoes, and apples being very 
different things in their wild, or, more properly, their na- 
tural state. The object of forest culture is, the production 
of carbon or woody fibre ; of garden or field culture, chiefly 
the addition of as much nitrogen as the plant can be 
made to take up. 

The solid excrements of animals do not contain as much 
nitrogen as those which are voided in a liquid form ; and, 
for this reason, do not constitute so powerful a fertilizing 
material. This could not be otherwise. The quantity of 
food which animals take diminishes or increases in pro- 



256 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

portion as it contains more or less of the substances con- 
taining nitrogen. The bowels of the cow are relatively 
much longer than those of the tiger ; the bulk of food con- 
sumed by the former animal is greater, and it requires to 
be retained longer, to traverse a greater extent of surface, 
before it can yield all its nutriment, than occurs in animals 
feeding on flesh which contains so much nitrogen. A 
horse may be kept alive upon potatoes, which contain very 
little nitrogen ; but life thus supported is gradual starva- 
tion. So the quantity of rice which an inhabitant of the 
East Indies will eat astonishes an Englishman ; but the 
fact that rice contains less nitrogen than any other kind of 
grain, at once explains the circumstance. In hot countries 
human beings live sparingly on vegetables which contain 
little of this principle ; in very cold countries, human be- 
ings require very fat substances, in order to support exist- 
ence, and to enable them to generate as much animal heat 
as is necessary. The Esquimaux will devour amazing 
quantities of whale's blubber, and would speedily die (in 
that climate) without a free supply of food containing 
large quantities of nitrogen. Hence vegetation is scanty 
— for food it is scarcely necessary : they live upon fish, or 
animals caught in the chase. In tropical climates, on the 
contrary, where animal food is not so necessary, a luxuri- 
ant vegetation is provided to satisfy the natural wants of 
man. 

By means of manure an addition only is made to the 
nourishment supplied from the air ; for the excrements of 
all animals contain less nitrogen than their food, and con- 
sequently a smaller quantity of matter containing nitrogen 
is given to the soil than has been abstracted in the form of 
grass, hay, or seeds. 

Another reason why liquid excrements containing am- 
monia (or that which, by further spontaneous chemical 
action, yields ammonia, and consequently nitrogen) are 
more useful than solid excrements, is to be found in the 
fact, that the former contain the greatest part of their 
ammonia in the state of salts : in a form, therefore, in 



NATURE OF VEGETABLE GROWTH. 257 

which it has lost its volatility when presented in this con- 
dition, not the smallest quantity of ammonia, in such a 
shape, is lost to the plants — it is all dissolved by water and 
imbibed by their roots. Practical farmers see the results : 
they know that plaster of Paris or gypsum, the insoluble 
sulphate of lime, strikingly increases the luxuriance of 
meadow-grass upon which it is strewed. But why 1 Be- 
cause it fixes in the soil all the ammonia of the atmos- 
phere, which would otherwise be partially volatilized with 
the w T ater that constantly evaporates from the surface of 
the soil. The sulphuric acid of the sulphate of lime has a 
stronger affinity for ammonia than it has for lime ; so sul- 
phate of ammonia is formed, which is not volatile, does 
not escape into a neighbor's pastures. In such an instance, 
the carbonate of ammonia naturally contained in rain- 
water is decomposed by the gypsum, in precisely the same 
manner as occurs in the manufacture of sal-ammoniac. 
Soluble (but not volatile) sulphate of ammonia, and car- 
bonate of lime or chalk, are formed by double decomposi- 
tion ; so that the beneficial effects of gypsum as a manure 
are not direct, but indirect, by fixing the ammonia either 
of rain-water or of manure with which it may have been 
mixed, and thus presenting that ammonia, or its valuable 
element nitrogen, to the roots of plants in a form suscepti- 
ble of absorption. All the gypsum gradually disappears, 
but its action upon the carbonate of ammonia continues as 
long as a trace of it exists. 

It is quite evident, therefore, that science alone can truly 
explain the mode in which certain matters exert their 
beneficial agency; and, consequently, science alone can 
rationally direct the practical farmer. All else beside is 
mere experiment — hazardous, expensive, and conjectural. 

In order to form an idea of the effect of gypsum, it may 
be sufficient to remark, that 100 pounds of burnt gypsum 
fix as much ammonia in the soil as 6,250 pounds of 
horse's urine would yield to it. The decomposition of 
gypsum does not take place instantaneously ; it proceeds 
very gradually, and this explains why the action of gyp- 



258 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

sum lasts for several years ; the supply of ammonia from 
the air, of course, remaining steady and unfailing. 

All rust of iron (or iron in combination with oxygen) 
contains a certain quantity of ammonia : the advantage of 
manuring fields with burned clay depends upon the pre- 
sence of oxide of iron. Now, all minerals containing alu- 
mina, or oxide of iron, possess, in a remarkable degree, 
the property of attracting ammonia from the atmosphere, 
and of retaining it in the soil. Pipe-clay (which is alu- 
minous earth), when moistened with a solution of caustic 
potash, emits ammonia, which it has absorbed from the 
atmosphere. Soils, therefore, containing oxides of iron 
and burnt clay, must absorb ammonia, which is separated 
by every shower of rain, and conveyed, in a dissolved state, 
to the roots of vegetables. Charcoal possesses a similar 
action ; it will absorb ninety times its volume of ammoni- 
acal gas, which may again be separated simply by moist- 
ening it with water, in which ammonia is extremely solu- 
ble. This explains why plants will grow in pure charcoal 
moistened with RAiN-water. We have here another easy 
and satisfactory method of explaining still further the pro- 
perties of humus, or of wood in a decaying state. Decay- 
ed oak wood absorbs 7.2 times its weight of ammonia ; 
humus, then, is not only a slow and constant source of 
carbonic acid, (repairing the loss of that which is con- 
stantly decomposed and absorbed by the leaves of vegeta- 
bles, as before stated), but it is a means by which the ne- 
cessary nitrogen is mechanically conveyed to plants. 

No conclusion can have a better foundation than this, 
that it is the ammonia of the atmosphere which furnishes 
all the nitrogen to plants they receive while uncultivated. 
All the innumerable products of vitality resume, after 
death, the original form from which they sprung ; and 
thus death, the complete dissolution of an existing genera- 
tion of animals and plants, becomes the source of life for 
a new one, and of that artificial and forced amount of nu- 
triment which plants may be compelled to receive, if judi- 
ciously fed, or, in other words, manured. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Of the Sources of the Saline, Earthy, and other Unorganized Constitu- 
ents of Vegetables. 

A further question arises : Are the conditions already 
considered all that is necessary for the life and growth of 
plants ? It will now be shown that they are not. 

Carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, are necessary for 
the existence of vegetation, because they contain the 
elements from which their organs are formed ; but other 
substances are requisite (as silica in straw) for the forma- 
tion of certain organs destined for special functions peculiar 
to each family of plants. Plants obtain these substances 
from inorganic nature. In the ashes of burnt vegetables 
the same substances are found, although in an altered 
condition. Many of these inorganic constituents vary 
according to the soil in which the plants grow ; but 
without a certain number of them, according to the nature 
of such plant, they never arrive at maturity. All sub- 
stances that water will dissolve in a soil are absorbed by 
the roots of plants exactly as a sponge imbibes a liquid 
indiscriminately. The substances thus conveyed to plants, 
are either retained in greater or less quantity, or are 
entirely separated when not suited for nutritive purposes. 

Phosphate of magnesia , in combination with ammonia, 
is an invariable constituent of the seeds of all kinds of 
grasses. It is contained in the outer husk, and is intro- 
duced into bread, along with the flour, as part of the bran. 
When ammonia is mixed with beer, this salt is precipi- 
tated. 

Most plants contain acids of very different composition 
and properties, all of which are in combination with bases, 
such as potash, soda, lime, or magnesia. These bases 



260 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

evidently regulate the formation of the acids ; for example, 
the quantity of potash contained in the juice of the grape 
is less when it is ripe than when unripe ; and the acids, 
under the same circumstances, are found to vary in a 
similar manner. We glanced, in a former chapter, at the 
existence of inorganic acids and bases in vegetables : we 
have now to investigate their source. 

The acids found in the different families of plants are 
very various. It cannot be supposed their presence and 
peculiarities are the result of chance or accident. They 
must serve some end in vegetable life, independently of 
their utility to the animals for whose healthful use some, 
if not all, of them are ultimately destined. Acids con- 
stantly exist in vegetables ; and it is incontestable that they 
are necessary to their life. And it is equally certain, that 
some alkaline, earthy, or metallic base, is also indispen- 
sable, in order to enter into combination with such acids 
which are always found in the state of salts, as oxalate of 
potash in the sour-leaf or sorrel. 

The nature of a soil exercises a. decided influence on the 
quantity of the different metallic oxides contained in the 
plants which grow on it. It is not known in what form 
silica, manganese, and oxide of iron, are contained in 
vegetables ; but we know that potash, soda, and magnesia, 
can be extracted from all parts of their structure, in the 
form of salts of organic acids. As these acids and bases 
are never absent from plants, and as even the form in 
which they present themselves is subject to no deviation, it 
may be affirmed that they are necessary, as exercising an 
important influence over the development of fruits and 
seeds, and also on many other functions, of the nature of 
which we are at present ignorant. The perfect develop- 
ment of a plant is dependent, then, on the presence of 
alkalies, or alkaline earths ; when these substances are 
totally wanting, its growth will be stopped ; when they are 
only deficient, it must be correspondingly impeded. Firs 
and pines find a sufficient quantity of alkalies in barren, 
sandy soil ; and wheat thrives in another kind of soil : 



CONSTITUENS OF VEGETABLES. 261 

because the bases necessary to bring each to maturity 
exist there in sufficient quantity. The proportion of 
silicate of potash (necessary for the firmness of wheat 
straw) does not vary perceptibly in the soil of corn-fields, 
because what is removed by the reaper, is again replaced 
in putrefying straw. But this is not the case with mea- 
dow-land. Hence we never find a luxuriant crop of grass 
on sandy and limestone soils which contain little potash, 
evidently because one of the constituents indispensable to 
the growth of the plants is wanting. If a meadow be 
well manured, we remove, with the increased crop of 
grass, a greater quantity of potash than can, by a repeti- 
tion of the same manure, be restored to it. So, grass-land 
manured with gypsum soon ceases to feel its agency. But 
if the meadow be strewed from time to time with wood 
ashes, or soap-boilers' ley made from wood ashes, then the 
grass thrives as luxuriantly as before. And why % The 
ashes are only a means of restoring the necessary potash 
for the grass stalks. So oats, barley, and rye, may be 
made for once to grow upon a sandy heath, by mixing 
with the scanty soil the ashes of the heath-plants that 
grow upon it. Those ashes contain soda and potash, 
conveyed to the growing furze or gorse by rain-water. 
The soil of one district consists of sandstone ; certain trees 
find in it a quantity of alkaline earths sufficient for their 
own sustenance. When felled, and burnt, and sprinkled 
upon the soil, oats grow and thrive that without such aid 
would not vegetate. 

The most decisive proof of the absurdity of the indis- 
criminate use of any strong manure was obtained at 
Bingen, a town on the Rhine, where the produce and 
development of vines were highly increased by manuring 
them with animal matters, such as shavings of horn. After 
some years, the formation of the wood and leaves decreas- 
ed perceptibly.* Such manure had too much hastened 

* It is said that this would be obviated, by burying the cuttings 
round the roots of the vines when pruned. — Amer. Ed. 



262 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

the growth of the vines : in two or three years they had 
exhausted the potash in the formation of their fruit leaves 
and wood ; so that none remained for the future crops, as 
shavings of horn contain no potash. Cow-dung would 
have been better, and is known to be better. A know- 
ledge of chemistry furnished the reason which is found in 
the fact, that it contains a large proportion of potash, 
though very little nitrogen. Hence, if nitrogen be the 
element in demand, cow-dung is not the material that will 
yield it. All the potash contained in the food consumed 
by a cow, is again immediately discharged in its excre- 
ments. 

A landed proprietor, in order to obtain more potash for 
his soil, planted it with wormwood, the ashes of which are 
w r ell known to contain a large quantity of that alkali. 
The consequence was, that he rendered his land quite 
incapable of bearing grain for many years. He had 
entirely deprived the soil of its potash. Had he sown 
wheat upon it instead of wormwood, he would have found 
the soil contained as much potash as was necessary for 
the nutrition of that vegetable. The supposition that 
alkalies, metallic oxides, or inorganic matter in general, 
are produced by plants, is refuted by such facts as these : 
they are absorbed by plants, not generated. 

Those grasses, the seeds of which furnish food for man, 
follow him like the domestic animals. Saline plants re- 
quire common salt, and seek the sea-shore. The plants 
which grow on dung-hills need ammonia and the nitrates, 
and are attracted whither these can be found just as the 
dung -fly is to animal excrements. So, likewise, none of 
our grain plants can bear plump seeds, yielding good and 
plentiful flour, without a large supply of phosphate of 
magnesia and ammonia, substances which they require for 
their maturity. No soil is richer in them than those where 
men and animals dwell together. Where the urine and 
excrements of these are found, grain plants appear ; 
because their seeds cannot attain maturity unless supplied 
with the constituents of these matters. 



CONSTITUENTS OF VEGETABLES. 263 

During* the boiling or evaporation of saltpetre ley, the 
salt volatilizes with the water, causing a loss which other- 
wise could not be explained. In sea storms, leaves, in the 
direction of the wind, are covered with crystals of salt, 
twenty or thirty miles from the sea. The great storm 
which occurred in England a few winters ago, verifies this 
statement. But it does not require a storm to cause the 
volatilization of the salt : every breeze must carry it away. 
The sea-air is always sufficient to make a solution of 
nitrate of silver turbid and milky. Now, as millions of 
tons of sea-water annually evaporate into the atmosphere, 
a corresponding quantity of the saline matters dissolved in 
it, common salt, muriate of potash, muriate of magnesia, 
and other matters, will be conveyed by the wind to the 
land. This volatilization is a source of considerable loss 
in salt-works where the quantity of salt in the liquor is not 
large. 

According to Marcel, sea-water contains in every 1000 
parts 26 of common salt, 4 of sulphate of soda or glauber 
salt, 1| of muriate of potash, 5£ muriate of magnesia, and 
1^ of sulphate of lime or gypsum. If it be asked, whether 
there be any peculiarities in the mode of existence of sea- 
plants and fish, we know that ammonia is found in sea 
water ; and that, while air contains only from four to six 
ten-thousandth parts of its volume of carbonic acid, sea- 
water contains 100 times more, or 620 parts in every ten 
thousand ; so that the same conditions which sustain 
living beings on the land, are combined in the ocean, 
in which a separate world of other plants and animals 
exists. 

By the continual evaporation of the sea., its salts are 
spread over the whole surface of the earth, subsequently 
to be carried down by the rain, and furnishing to vege- 
tables, through the medium of the soil, those saline 
matters essential to their existence. The salts of po- 
tash, magnesia, and soda, are not peculiar to the ocean : 
they are found naturally existing on the land as in the 
water ; but the above explanation accounts for the ori- 



264 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

gin of alkalies in the ashes of plants in those eases 
where the soil could not have yielded them. Nor must 
we overlook the fact, that whatever be the nature of 
the soil, or however impoverished by successive crops 
of alkaline vegetables, upon that surface the distant 
ocean is for ever, unchangingly and silently, pouring 
the saline treasures of the great deep. Were the pro- 
portions of land and ocean reversed as to their extent, 
it is easy to predict the effect upon vegetation ; as it is, 
the existing quantity of saline material in the ocean 
(which could not be increased without detriment to its 
inhabitants) is amply sufficient for the more than single 
purpose that wise arrangement was destined to answer. 
The atmosphere contains only a thousandth part of its 
weight of carbonic acid ; and yet small as this proportion 
appears, it is quite sufficient to supply the whole of the 
present generation of living beings with carbon for a thou- 
sand years, even if it were not renewed. Navigators 
have sailed for hundreds of miles along the unbroken 
edge of a coral reef : the clustering islands of the Pacihc 
are many of them exclusively of coraline origin. Sea- 
water contains one twelve-thousandth part of its weight 
of lime ; and yet, from this apparently minute quantity, 
insect agency has raised those very reefs upon which 
many a huge ship has been dashed into shapeless frag- 
ments. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Of the necessary Relation between the Composition of a Soil and the 
Vegetables it is fitted to raise. Fallowing and Green Crops consi- 
dered as Vegetable Manure. 

The methods employed in the cultivation of land are 
different in every country ; and when we inquire the cause 
of these differences, we are told that they " depend upon 
circumstances." Now, as few people have endeavored to 
ascertain these circumstances, to reason correctly, and act 
from rational principle, no answer could show ignorance 
more plainly. So, when we inquire how manure acts, we 
are either met with a reply that is figurative and incorrect, 
or, with the admission that the result is all that is known 
or cared about. We are told that the excrements of man 
and animals, or that certain mineral matters, are supposed 
to contain an incomprehensible something, which assists in 
the nourishment of plants, and increases their size. No 
attempt is made to ascertain the component parts of the 
different species of manure, much less to ascertain whether 
it be precisely fitted to supply a known deficiency in the 
soil. 

Besides heat, light, moisture, and the component ele- 
ments of the atmosphere, which are necessary for the 
mere existence of all plants, certain fertilizing substances 
are seen to exercise a peculiar influence over the develop- 
ment either of whole plants, or of particular parts of them. 
Such substances are either already contained in soil, or 
may be artificially supplied in the form of manure. 

The rules of a rational system of agriculture should 
enable us, therefore, to give to each plant that which it 
requires for the attainment of the special object in view — 
namely, an artificial increase of certain parts which are 
employed as food for man and animals. 

13* 



266 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

The means employed for the production of fine pliable 
straw for hats and bonnets is the very opposite to the mode 
which must be adopted, in order to produce the largest 
possible quantity of corn from the same plant. Peculiar 
methods must be used for the production of nitrogen in 
the seeds ; others for giving strength to the straw ; and 
others again, when we wish to give such qualities to the 
straw as will enable it to bear the weight of the ears. 

We must proceed in the artificial rearing and forcing of 
plants precisely as we do in the fattening of animals. The 
flesh of wild animals is devoid of fat, or nearly so. The 
production of flesh and fat may be artificially increased : 
all domesticated animals are easily fattened. To do this, 
we add to the quantity of food, and lessen (as in the stall- 
fed ox) the waste occasioned by the increased action of 
the lungs, (as consequent upon motion), together with the 
waste which such muscular exertion would produce by in- 
creased action of the skin. 

Arable land is originally formed by the crumbling of 
rocks ; and its properties depend on the nature of its com- 
ponent parts. 

Sand, clay, and lime, are the names given to the princi- 
pal constituents of the different kinds of soil. 

Pure sand, and pure limestone, in which there are no 
other unorganized substances except the earth of flint, 
chalk, or silicic acid combined with lime, form absolutely 
barren soils. But clay always forms a part of fertile soils. 
Whence is the origin of clay earths in arable land ? 
What are their constituents ? and what part do they play 
in favoring vegetation 1 They are produced by the break- 
ing down of aluminous ?ninerals by the action of the 
weather. These minerals are found, mixed with other 
substances, in granite, mica-slate, porphyry, clay-slate, the 
volcanic rocks, and others. Mountain limestone is remark- 
able for the quantity of clayey earths which it contains. 
In grauwacke we find pure quartz, clay slate, and lime; 
in the sandstones, quartz and loam ; and in the transition 



soils. 267 

limestone there is an intermixture of clay, felspar, and 
clay slate. These examples may be sufficient. 

It is known that aluminous minerals (that is to say, 
minerals containing the metal " aluminium" which com- 
bined with oxygen, forms " alumina" or the pure earth 
of clay) are the most widely diffused on the surface of the 
earth ; and all fertile soils, or soils capable of culture, in- 
variably contain alumina. 

There must, therefore, be something in aluminous earth 
which causes it to exercise an influence on the life of 
plants, and to assist in their growth. The property on 
which this depends is, that clay invariably contains potash 
and soda. Besides which, alumina attracts and retains 
water and ammonia from the atmosphere. Alumina is 
itself very rarely found in the ashes of plants ; but silica 
(or the earth of flints) is always present, having, in most 
places, entered the plants by means of alkalies. Among 
aluminous minerals, felspar, which is one of them, con- 
tains 17 per cent, of potash ; mica from 3 to 5 per cent, 
of soda; clay slate contains from 2 to 3 per cent, of 
potash ; and loam from 1£ to 4 per cent, of the same 
alkali. 

So that, in a layer of soil formed by the breaking 
down of 40,000 square feet of one of these rocks, to the 
depth of twenty inches, we should find that so much fel- 
spar would contain more than a million pounds of potash ; 
if the soil were formed by the disintegration of clay slate, 
about 200,000 ; if loam were the material, from 87,000 
to 300,000 ; and similarly of other rocks of partially alu- 
minous character. 

Potash is present in all clays, and in marl ; it has been 
found in all aluminous earths in which it has been sought. 
Alum (which is a sulphate of alumina, combined with 
sulphate of potash) may be procured by digesting clay 
in sulphuric acid, which takes up both the alumina and 
the potash. 

A thousandth part of loam mixed with the quartz in 
red sandstone, or with the lime in the different limestone 



268 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

formations, affords as much potash to a soil 20 inches in 
depth, as is sufficient to supply a forest of pines growing 
upon it with potash for a hundred years. 

Water, impregnated with the carbonic acid of the at- 
mosphere, decomposes rocks which contain alkalies, and 
then dissolves a part of the alkaline carbonates formed in 
the process. Plants, also, by producing carbonic acid 
during their decay, and by means of the acids emitted by 
their living roots, contribute no less powerfully to destroy 
the coherence of solid minerals. Air, water, and changing 
temperature prepare the different species of rocks for 
yielding to plants the potash or soda they contain. Mrs. 
Ellis relates, that among the mountains which divide 
France from Spain, the rocks actually smoke after rain, 
under the influence of the summer sun, and become so hot 
that it is uncomfortable to sit down upon them. Chang- 
ing temperature is a most important agent in nature. It 
not only assists in the original formation of soils, but 
exerts a most powerful influence over those already in 
existence. In wet soils the temperature rises slowly, and 
never attains the same height as in one that is sandy and 
dry. When the heat of the atmosphere rises no higher in 
the shade than 60 or 70 degrees, a dry soil may become 
so warm as to raise the thermometer to 90 or 100. 
Hence, though the expression be used figuratively, it 
is in this instance strictly c ^rrect to say that wet soils are 
cold. 

The exhaustion of alkalie. in a soil by successive crops 
is the true reason why practical farmers suppose themselves 
compelled to suffer land to lie in fallow. It is the greatest 
possible mistake to think that the temporary diminution 
of fertility in a field is chiefly owing to the loss of the 
decaying vegetable matter it previously contained : it is 
principally the consequence of the exhaustion of potash 
and soda, which are restored by the slow process of the 
more complete disintegration of the materials of the soil. 
It is evident that the careful tilling of fallow land must 
accelerate and increase this further breaking up of its 



soils. 269 

mineral ingredients. Nor is this repose of the soil always 
necessary. A field, which has become unfitted for a cer- 
tain kind of produce, may not, on that account, be unsuit- 
able for another ; and upon this observation, a system of 
agriculture has been gradually formed, the principal ob- 
ject of which is to obtain the greatest possible produce in 
a succession of years, with the least outlay for manure. 
Because plants require for their growth different constitu- 
ents of soil, changing the crop from year to year will 
maintain the fertility of that soil (provided it be done 
with judgment) quite as well as leaving it at rest or fal- 
low 7 . In this we but imitate nature. The oak, after thriv- 
ing for long generations on a particular spot, gradually 
sickens ; its entire race dies out ; other trees and shrubs 
succeed it, till, at length, the surface becomes so charged 
w T ith an excess of dead vegetable matter, that the forest 
becomes a peat moss,* or a surface upon which no large 
tree will grow. Generally long before this can occur, 
the operation of natural causes has gradually removed 
from the soil substances essential to the growth of oak, 
leaving others favorable and necessary to the growth of 
beech or pine. So, in practical farming, one crop in arti- 
ficial rotation with others, extracts from the soil a certain 
quantity of necessary inorganic matters ; a second carries 
off, in preference, those which the former had left, and 
neither could nor would take up. 

Experience proves that wheat should not be attempted 
to be raised after wheat on the same soil ; for, like tobacco, 
it exhausts the soil. But, if " humus," decaying vegeta- 
ble matter, gives it the power of producing corn, how 
happens it that, in soils formed in large proportion of 
mouldered wood, the corn-stalk attains no strength, and 
droops permanently ? The cause is this : the strength of 
the stalk is due to silicate of potash, and the corn requires 
phosphate of magnesia ; neither of w r hich substances a soil 

* This does not happen in American forests, but when oak and other 
deciduous trees are cut off, they will be succeeded frequently by a 
growth of pine, and so vice versa. — Amer. Ed, 



270 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

of decaying vegetable matter can afford, since it does not 
contain them : the plant may, indeed, under such circum- 
stances, become a herb, but will bear no seeds. We 
say phosphate of magnesia is necessary ; — the small quan- 
tities of the phosphates found in peas and beans is the 
cause of their comparatively small value as articles of nou- 
rishment, since they surpass all other vegetable food in the 
quantity of nitrogen they contain. But as the component 
parts of bone, namely, phosphate of lime and magnesia, 
are absent in beans and peas, they satisfy appetite without 
increasing the strength. 

Again, how does it happen that wheat does not flourish 
on a sandy soil, and that a limestone soil is also unsuit- 
able, unless mixed with a considerable quantity of clay ? 
Evidently because these soils do not contain potash and 
soda (always found in clay); the growth of wheat being 
arrested by this circumstance, even should all other requi- 
site substances be presented in abundance. It is because 
they are mutually prejudicial by appropriating the alkalies 
of the soil, that wormwood will not thrive where wheat 
has grown, nor wheat where wormwood has been. 

One hundred parts of wheat straw yield 15^ of ashes ; 
the same quantity of barley straw, 8£ ; of oat straw, only 
4 : the ashes of the three are, chemically, of the same 
composition. Upon the same field which will yield only 
one harvest of wheat, two successive crops of barley may 
be raised, and three of oats. We have, in these facts, a 
clear proof of what is abstracted from the soil, and, con- 
sequently, what plants require for their growth — a key to 
the rational mode of supplying the deficiency. 

Potash is not the only substance requisite for the exist- 
ence of most plants ; indeed it may be replaced, in some 
cases, by soda, magnesia, or lime ; but other substances 
are required also. 

Plants obtain phosphoric acid (found in combination 
with lime or magnesia) from the soil, and they, in their 
turn, yield it to animals, to assist in the formation of their 
bones. Creatures that feed upon flesh, bread, fruit, and 



soils. 271 

husks of grain, take in much more phosphorus than is re- 
quired for the building up of the animal fabric ; and this 
excess is again usefully thrown out by them, chiefly in 
their liquid excrements. Some plants, however, extract 
other matters from the soil besides silica, potash, and phos- 
phoric acid, which are essential constituents of the plants 
ordinarily cultivated. 

English farming presents us whh varied instances of 
plants sown, and growing together in the same field. Two 
such vegetables will mutually injure each other, if they 
withdraw the same food from the soil. Plants will thrive 
beside each other, either when the substances necessary 
for their growth, extracted from the soil, are of different 
kinds, or when they themselves are not both in the same 
stage of growth at the same time. On a soil containing 
potash, wheat and tobacco may be reared in succession, 
because the latter plant does not require the phosphates 
which the wheat has appropriated to itself. Now, to- 
bacco requires only alkalies, and food containing nitrogen. 
When we grow different plants in the same soil, for seve- 
ral years in succession, the first of which leaves behind 
that which the second, and the second that which the third 
may require, the soil will be a fruitful one for all the three 
kinds of produce. If the first plant, for example, be wheat, 
which consumes the greatest part of the silicate of potash 
in the soil, the plants which succeed it should be such as 
require little potash, as turnips or potatoes. The wheat 
lands may be sown again with wheat, advantageously, 
after the fourth year, the reason of this is, that during 
the interval of three years, the soil will, by the action of 
the atmosphere, be rendered capable of again yielding sili- 
cate of potash in sufficient quantity for wheat. Whether 
this process can be artificially anticipated, by supplying 
the exhausted ingredient to the soil, is a further and most 
interesting inquiry. 

In a four-years' course of cropping, the crops gathered 
amounted, per acre, to — 



272 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

1st year, Turnips, 25 tons of bulbs, and 7 tons of tops. 

2d year, Barley, 38 bushels, and a ton of straw. 

3d year, Clover and Rye Grass, 1 ton of each in hay. 

4th year, Wheat, 25 bushels, and 2 tons of straw. 

Supposing none of the crops to be eaten upon the land, 
the quantity of inorganic matter contained in the above 
would be as follows : — 





lbs. 


lbs. 




Potash 


281 


Silica, 318 




Soda, 


130 


Sulphuric acid, 111/ 


1 in combination 


Lime, 


242 


Phosphoric acid, 61 : 


> with the earths 


Magnesia, 


42 


Chlorine, 39 ] 


) and alkalies ; 


Alumina, 


11 







making a gross weight of 1,240 pounds, or about eleven 
hundred weight. 

A still clearer idea of the importance and quantities of 
these inorganic matters may be obtained by a considera- 
tion of the fact, that if we were to carry off the entire of 
the above produce, and return none of it again in the 
shape of manure, (supposing also that we could stop the 
beneficial agency of the atmosphere during that period), 
we must, or ought, instead of that produce — if the land is 
to be restored to its original condition — add to each 
acre, every four years, 300 pounds of pearl ashes, or pot- 
ash ; 440 of carbonate of soda ; 65 of common salt ; 240 
of quick lime ; 250 of sulphate of magnesia, that is, Ep- 
som salts ; 84 of alum ; and 260 of bone dust : making 
1,729 pounds of solid saline matter, at an expense of 
nearly £9. The fertility of a soil cannot remain long un- 
impaired, unless we replace in it all those substances of 
which it has been deprived. We could keep our fields in 
a constant state of fertility, by replacing, every year, as 
much as we remove from them in the form of produce : 
and, be it remembered, that our cultivated corn plants 
and bulbous roots are not like forest plants and trees : 
the quantity of nutriment they require, and take up, to 
bring them to perfection and perpetuate the race, is far 
more than the unaided elements around them could sup- 
ply. Wheat, for instance, as a natural production of the 



SOILS. 



soil, appears to have been a very small grass : and the 
case is still more remarkable with the apple and the plum. 
The common crab seems to have been the parent of all 
our apples. Potatoes and turnips, in their wild or natural 
state, are unfit for food ; and two fruits can scarcely be 
conceived more different in color, size, and appearance, 
than the wild plum and the rich magnum bonum. We 
have to contend, then, with two important differences : 
First, That wheat or turnips are not natural productions ; 
and, secondly, That because they are not, they drain or 
exhaust unassisted soil faster than the wild plants of the 
forest ; nor will they thrive long, if denied that assistance 
from artificial nutriment, which nature cannot supply in 
sufficient quantity. 

It is evident, then, that an increase of fertility, and con- 
sequent increase of crop, can only be expected when we 
add more to the soil of the proper material (and no other), 
than we take away. Any soil will partially regain itself 
by lying fallow : this is owing to atmospheric action, and 
the conversion of the roots and stalks into humus. But 
though the quantity of decaying vegetable humus in a 
soil may be increased to a certain degree by cultivation 
and alternate cropping, still, there cannot be the smallest 
doubt, that a soil must (without help) ultimately lose 
those of its constituents, which are removed in the seeds, 
roots, and leaves of the plants raised upon it. 

To prevent this loss, and, as a further object, to enable 
us to raise increased quantities of productions, demanding 
more sustenance than land will naturally yield, is the 
object of the application of the various substances used as 
manures. They will prove useless, injurious, or valuable, 
precisely as they are accurately or inaccurately adapted 
to meet the deficiency. 

Land, when not employed in raising food for animals or 
man, should at least be applied to the purpose of raising 
manure for itself; and this, to a certain extent, may be 
effected by means of green crops, which, by their decom- 
position, not only add to the amount of vegetable mould 



274 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

contained in the soil, but supply the alkalies that would be 
found in their ashes. That the soil should become richer 
by this burial of a crop, than it was before the seed of that 
crop was sown, will be understood, by recollecting that 
three-fourths of the whole organic matter we bury has 
been derived from the air : that by this process of plowing 
in, the vegetable matter is more equally diffused through 
the whole soil, and therefore more easily and rapidly 
decomposed ; and that by its gradual decomposition, 
ammonia and nitric acid are certainly generated, though 
not so largely as when animal matters are employed. 
He who neglects the green sods, and crops of weeds that 
flourish by his hedgerows and ditches, overlooks an import- 
ant natural means of wealth. Left to themselves, they 
ripen their seeds, exhausting the soil, and sowing them 
annually in his fields : collected in compost heaps, they 
add materially to his yearly crops of corn. We have 
said that absolute repose of the soil is not frequently 
needed ; and, with some practical illustrations of the sys- 
tem of alternate cropping, we will close this section. 

In Flanders, two crops of clover are cut, and the third 
is plowed in. In Sussex, turnip seed has been sown at 
the end of harvest, and, after two months, again plowed in 
with great benefit to the land. So turnip leaves and 
potato tops decay rapidly, and are more enriching when 
buried in the green state. In the Earl of Leicester's 
course of cropping, the land is never idle. The turnip is 
the first in the order of succession. This crop is manured 
with recent dung, which immediately affords sufficient 
matter for its nourishment ; the heat produced in its decom- 
position assisting in the extrication of ammonia, the libe- 
ration of nitrogen, and the consequent germination of the 
seed, and growth of the plant. Next after turnips, barley, 
with grass seeds, is sown ; and the land having been 
little exhausted by the previous crop of turnips, affords the 
soluble parts of the decomposing tops and manure to the 
barley. The barley is gathered ; the grasses, rye-grass 
and clover, remain, which derive a small part only of 



soils. 275 

their organized matter from the soil, and probably consume 
the gypsum which would be useless to previous and suc- 
ceeding crops. These grasses, by their large system of 
leaves, absorb mainly their nutriment from the atmos- 
phere ; and, when plowed in at the end of two years, their 
decomposed roots and leaves are useful to the wheat crop, 
which is next, and last in succession. At this period of 
the course, the woody fibre of the farm-yard manure, con- 
taining phosphate of lime, is sufficiently decomposed ; and 
as soon as the most exhausting crop is taken off the land, 
recent animal manure is again applied. Peas and beans, 
in all instances, seem well adapted to prepare the ground 
for wheat ; and in some parts of the country they are 
raised, alternately with wheat, for years together. Mr. 
Gregg, — whose ingenious system of cultivation has been 
published by the Board of Agriculture, and who adopts, 
upon strong clays, a plan similar to that of the Earl of 
Leicester (better known as Mr. Coke of Holkham), — 
suffers the ground, after barley, to remain at rest for two 
years in grass ; sows peas and beans on the leys ; plows in 
the pea or bean stubble for wheat ; and, in some instances, 
follows his wheat crops by a course of winter tares and 
winter barley, which is eaten off in the spring, before the 
land is sown for turnips. 

It is a great advantage, in the convertible system of cul- 
tivation, that the w T hole of the manure is employed, as 
well as the entire resources of the land, in their proper 
order ; those materials which are not fitted for one crop,, 
remaining as nutriment, or essential requisites for the next, 
or for another, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Of the Nature and correct Use of the Excrements of Animals con- 
sidered as Manure ; the Mode of its Action and Preservation. — 
Bone Dust, and dead Animal Matter. 

Calico printers for a long time have used the solid 
excrements of the cow in order to brighten and fasten 
colors on cotten cloth. This material appeared quite 
necessary, and its action was ascribed to some latent prin- 
ciple or material derivable from the living animal. But 
since the action of cow-dung was known to depend on the 
phosphates contained in it, it has been completely replaced 
by a more cleanly mixture of certain salts, of which the 
most prominent is phosphate of soda. 

So, similarly, in medicine, for many centuries the mode 
of action, or the active principle of all remedies, was veiled 
in obscurity. But now these principles have been pre- 
sented to the world in an extremely active and concen- 
trated form. The extraordinary efficacy of Peruvian bark 
in the cure of fever, is found to depend on the admixture 
of a minute quantity of a crystalline substance termed 
quinine, with the useless woody fibre ; and the causes of 
the various effects of opium, in as many equally minute 
yet powerful ingredients in that drug. The inhabitants of 
Savoy are much infested with the disease known amongst 
us as " Derbyshire neck." They have springs which are 
famous for its cure ; we derive benefit from the use of 
burnt sponge. Now, burnt sponge contains iodine ; and 
upon examination these springs contain iodine in small 
quantities. The action of the sponge, or of the water, 
must depend upon some definite cause common to both ; 
by ascertaining which we place the action and result com- 
pletely at our command. 



ANIMAL MANURE. 277 

Apply this reasoning to agricultural operations. One 
practical farmer applies, indiscriminately, any fertilizing 
material to his land in any slate ; another, more partial to 
what is technically termed " short muck," allows violent 
fermentation to reduce his mixture of straw and dung to 
one half its weight ; during which operation much gase- 
ous ammonia is disengaged and lost, which, if retained, or 
supplied to the soil, would have proved extremely service- 
able. Both methods cannot be right in all cases. 

Besides the dissipation of gaseous matter when ferment- 
ation is pushed to the extreme, there is another disadvan- 
tage in the loss of heat, which, if excited in the soil in- 
stead of the dunghill, is useful in promoting the springing 
of the seed and in assisting the plant in the first stage of 
its growth, when it is most feeble and most liable to dis- 
ease : and the decomposition of manure in the soil must 
be particularly favorable to the wheat crop, in preserving 
a genial temperature beneath the surface late in autumn 
and during the winter. These views are in accordance 
with a well-known principle in chemistry — that, in all 
cases of decomposition, substances combine much more 
readily at the moment of their disengagement than after 
they have been some time perfectly formed and set at lib- 
erty. And in fermentation beneath the soil, the fluid mat- 
ter produced is applied instantly, even whilst it is warm, 
to the young organs of the rising plant ; and, consequent- 
ly, is more likely to be efficient, than in manure that has 
gone through the process, and of which all the principles 
have entered into new combinations. 

It is certainly a matter of indifference whether we em- 
ploy excrements, ashes, or bones, in carrying out the prin- 
ciple of restoring to the soil those substances which have 
been taken from it by the previous crop. But, unless we 
know accurately what are those matters that have been 
actually removed, how is it possible to supply, otherwise 
than at random guess, the deficiency \ Fermented dung 
may be really useful, if no nitrogen be demanded. A time 



278 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

will come when fields will be manured with saline solu- 
tions, with the ashes of burnt straw, or with salts of phos- 
phoric acid prepared in chemical manufactories, with as 
much certainty as now, in medicine, iodine cures the Der- 
byshire neck, or as quinine is substituted for the bulky 
powdered bark in fever. The same mixed mass of mate- 
rials may be useful in one state, less so in another and 
under other circumstances. A knowledge of the actual 
wants of the land, and of the exact composition of the pro- 
posed manure, is obviously necessary to enable the farmer 
to adapt the one to the other as a requisite and fitting re- 
medy. If our object be the development of the seeds of 
plants, we know they contain nitrogen. Our manure then 
must be rich in this material. If by fermentation ammo- 
nia be formed in the manure, if it become dry, rotten, and 
nearly devoid of smell, having lost its previous heat ; al- 
though it may cut better with the spade, we may be sure 
it has lost its nitrogen, and, consequently, as far as our 
object is concerned (the nutriment of the seed), nearly 
lost its utility. The leaves, which by their action on the 
air nourish the stem and woody fibre; the roots, from 
which the leaves are formed ; in short, every part of the 
structure of a plant contains nitrogen in small and 
varying proportions. But the seeds are always rich in 
nitrogen. 

kD 

The most important object, then, of farming operations, 
at least as far as corn is concerned, is the supply of nitro- 
gen to com plants in a state capable of being taken up by 
them — the production, therefore, of manures containing 
the most of this element. Gypsum and nitrate of soda are 
as properly termed manures as farm-yard dung, bone-dust, 
or night-soil ; but our present inquiry is, what class of 
substances contain and yield to corn-plants most nitro- 
gen ? Nature, by the ordinary action of the atmosphere, 
furnishes as much nitrogen to a plant as is necessary to its 
bare existence. But plants do not exist for themselves 
alone — the greater number of animals depend upon the 



ANIMAL MANURE. 279 

vegetable world for food ; and, by a wise adjustment of 
nature, plants have the remarkable power of converting, 
to a certain degree, all the nitrogen offered to them into 
nutriment for animals. We may furnish a plant with 
carbonic acid, and all the materials which it may require 
for its mere life ; we may supply it with vegetable matter 
in a state of decay in the most abundant quantity ; but it 
will not attain complete development unless nitrogen be 
afforded to it by the supply of suitable manure : a herb 
will, indeed, be formed, but its seeds or grain will be im- 
perfect and feeble. 

But when, with proper manure, we supply nitrogen in 
addition to what the plant would derive from natural 
sources, we enable it to attract from the air the carbon 
which is necessary for its nutrition — that is, when that in 
the soil is not sufficient, we afford it a means of fixing the 
atmospheric carbon. 

There are two principal descriptions of manure, the bene- 
ficial agency of which is derivable, almost exclusively, 
from the large quantity of nitrogen 'hey yield. 

These are the solid as well as fluid excrements of man 
and animals, their dung and urine. 

Urine is employed as manure, either singly, in its liquid 
state, or with the fasces which are impregnated with it. It 
is the urine contained in night-soil which gives it the pro- 
perty of giving off ammonia, a property which the dis- 
charges from the bowels possess only in a very slight de- 
gree. Liquid manures act chiefly through the saline sub- 
stances they hold in solution ; while the solid manures, 
even of animal origin, contain insoluble matters, which 
decay slowly in the soil, and there become useful only after 
a time. When we examine what substances we add to a 
soil by supplying it with urine, we find that this liquid con- 
tains in solution ammoniacal salts, uric acid (a substance 
itself containing much nitrogen), and salts of phosphoric 
acid. 

Human urine consists in 1000 parts of 



280 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

Water, 932 

Urea, and other organic matters containing nitrogen, 49 

Phosphates of ammonia, soda, lime, and magnesia, - 6 

Sulphates of soda and ammonia, 7 

Sal-ammoniac and common salt, 6 



1000 



In dung reservoirs, well constructed and protected from 
evaporation, the carbonate of ammonia, which forms in 
consequence of putrefaction, is retained in solution ; and 
when the putrefied urine is spread over the land, a part of 
this ammonia will escape with the water which evapo- 
rates. On account of the formation of carbonate of am- 
monia in putrid urine, it becomes alkaline, though natu- 
rally acid in its recent state ; and when this carbonate of 
ammonia is lost by being volatilized in the air (which hap- 
pens in most cases), the loss suffered is nearly equal to one 
half of the urine employed. So that, if we fix the ammo- 
nia (by combining it with some acid which forms with it 
a compound not volatile) we increase its action two-fold. 
Now the carbonate of ammonia formed by the putrefac- 
tion of urine can be fixed, or deprived of its volatility, in 
many ways. 

If, for instance, a field be strewed with gypsum, or 
plaster of Paris (in chemical language, sulphate of lime), 
and then sprinkled with urine, or the drainings of the cow- 
shed, a double exchange or decomposition takes place. 
Sulphate of lime and carbonate of ammonia become con- 
verted into carbonate of lime (that is, chalk) and sulphate 
of ammonia ; and this because sulphuric acid has a greater 
affinity for ammonia than it has for lime. This sulphate 
of ammonia will remain in the soil—it will not evapo- 
rate. 

If a basin containing spirit of salt, or muriatic acid, be 
left a few weeks in a close stable or privy, so that its 
surface is in free communication with the ammoniacal 
vapors that rise from below, crystals of muriate of ammo- 
nia, or common sal-ammoniac, will soon be visible, as an 
incrustation about its edges. The ammonia that escapes 



ANIMAL MANURE. 281 

in this way is not only entirely lost as far as vegetation is 
concerned ; it works also a slow but not less certain de- 
struction of the mortar and plaster of the building. For 
when in contact with the lime of the mortar, ammonia is 
converted into nitric acid, which gradually dissolves the 
lime. There are few schoolboys who have not picked 
out crystals of nitrate of potass, or saltpetre, from an old 
brick wall; and in this instance the atmosphere has 
yielded the ammonia. 

The offensive carbonate of ammonia in close stables is 
very injurious to the eyes and lungs of horses, as the army 
veterinary surgeons are well able to testify. They adopt 
measures to carry it off by ventilation and cleanliness. If 
the floors of stables or cow-sheds were strewed with com- 
mon gypsum, they would lose all their offensive and inju- 
rious smell, and none of the ammonia which forms could 
be lost, but would be retained in a condition serviceable 
as manure. This composition, swept from the stable floor, 
nearly constitutes what is sold under the denomination of 
urate. Manufacturers of this material state, that three or 
four hundred weight of urate form sufficient manure for an 
acre ; a far more promising adventure for a practical far- 
mer will be to go to some expense in saving his own 
liquid manure, and, after mixing it with burnt gypsum, to 
lay it abundantly upon his corn-lands. For, in this way, 
he may use as much gypsum as will absorb the whole of 
the urine. Now, in the manufacture of urate, the pro- 
portion of 10 pounds is employed to every 7 gallons, - 

allowing the mixture, occasionally stirred, to stand some 
time, pouring off the liquid, and with it nearly all its 
saline contents, except the ammonia. Urate, therefore, 
can never present all the virtues of the urine — 100 
pounds of urate containing no greater weight of saline 
and organic matter than 10 gallons of urine. 

From the foregoing analysis it would appear, that 1000 

pounds of human urine contain no less than 68 pounds of 

dry fertilizing matter of the richest quality, worth, at the 

present rate of selling artificial manures in this country, at 

14 



282 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

least 20 shillings ($5) per hundred weight. Suppose we 
say that the liquid and solid excrements of one human be- 
ing amount on an average to a pound and a half daily, then 
in one year they will amount to 547 pounds ; which, at 
the rate of 3 per cent, of contained nitrogen, would yield 
16 pounds of that material for the land, a quantity suffi- 
cient to supply enough for 800 pounds of wheat, rye, or 
oats, or for 900 pounds of barley. As each person in 
reality voids at least 1000 pounds or pints of urine in a 
year, the national waste incurred in this form amounts, at 
the above valuation, to twelve shillings a head upon every 
individual of the whole population of England and Wales. 
And \i five tons of farm-yard manure per acre, added 
yearly, will keep a farm in good order, four hundred 
weight of the solid matter of urine would probably have 
an equal effect — in other words, the excrements of a sin- 
gle individual are more than sufficient to yield the requi- 
site nitrogen to an acre of land, in order to enable it (with 
the assistance of the nitrogen absorbed naturally from the 
atmosphere) to produce the richest possible yearly crop. 
Every town and farm might thus supply itself with the 
manure, which, besides containing the most nitroo-en, 
contains also the most phosphates j and if an alternation 
of the crops were adopted, they would be most abundant. 
By using at the same time bones and wood ashes, the ex- 
crements of animals might be completely dispensed with ; 
so that artificial, mineral, or chemical manures are no im- 
perfect substitutes, if applied judiciously. 

The urine alone discharged into rivers or sewers by a 
town population of 10,000 inhabitants would supply ma- 
nure to a farm of 1500 acres, yielding a return of 4500 
quarters (36,000 bushels) of wheat, or an equivalent pro- 
duce of other crops. The powerful agency of urine as a 
manure is well known on the continent of Europe, and 
the Chinese justly consider it as invaluable ; and they are 
the oldest as well as the best agriculturists in the world. 
Indeed so much value is attached to human excrements by 
the Chinese, that the laws of the country forbid that any 



ANIMAL MANURE. 283 

ef them should be thrown away ; and reservoirs are placed 
in every house, where they are collected with the utmost 
care. No other kind of manure is used for their grain 
fields. 

Human urine contains a greater variety of constituents 
than any other species examined. Urea, uric acid, and ano- 
ther acid similar to it in nature, called rosacic acid, acetic 
acid, albumen, gelatine, a resinous matter, and its various 
salts, are all valuable to the land, inasmuch as from the 
land they or their elements have been originally derived. 
The urine of animals that feed exclusively on flesh con- 
tains more animal matter, and consequently more nitrogen, 
than that of vegetable feeders, whence it is more apt to run 
into the putrefactive process and disengage ammonia. In 
proportion as there are more gelatine and albumen in 
urine, so in proportion does it putrefy more rapidly. Thus, 
then, all urine contains the essential elements of vegetables 
in a state of solution ; and that will be the best for ma- 
nure which contains most albumen, gelatine, . and urea. 
Putrid urine abounds in ammoniacal salts, and is only less 
active as a manure than fresh urine, because of the portion 
of ammonia which is continually exhaling into the atmos- 
phere. 

As to the urine of cattle, it contains less water than that 
of man, varying with the kind of food on which the animal 
is feii. A cow will secrete and discharge from two thou- 
sand to three thousand gallons of urine a year ; and this 
quantity will contain at least from 1200 to 1500 pounds 
of dry solid saline matters, worth from ten to twelve 
pounds sterling ($50 to $60). Even in the liquid state, 
the urine of one cow, collected and preserved as it is in 
Flanders, is valued at £2 ($10) a year. Any practical farmer 
may easily make the calculation for himself, how much 
real wealth is lost in his own farm-yard, how much of the 
natural means of reproductive industry passes into his 
drains or evaporates in the air. 

The urine of the cow is particularly rich in salts of po- 
tash, but contains very little soda. The urine of swine 



284 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

contains a large quantity of the phosphates of ammonia 
and magnesia. That of the horse contains less nitrogen 
and phosphates than that of man. 

The fertilizing power of animal manures, whether fluid 
or solid, is dependent, like that of the soil itself, upon the 
happy admixture of a great number, if not of all, those 
substances which are required by plants in the universal 
cultivation they receive from the industry and skill of man, 
more especially upon the large proportion of nitrogen 
they contain. The amount of this latter material affords 
the readiest test by which their agricultural value, compar- 
ed with other matters and with that of each other, can be 
tolerably well estimated. 

Ordinary farm-yard manure, in its recent state, contains 
a given proportion of nitrogen ; but fifteen pounds of blood 
would yield as much nitrogen as one hundred pounds of 
farm-yard compost. If dried blood were taken, four pounds 
would be sufficient; three pounds of feathers, three of 
horn-shavings, five of pigeons' dung, or even two and-a- 
half of woollen rags, would counterpoise one hundred of 
the first named material. Sixteen would be the equivalent 
number for the urine of the horse, ninety-one that of the 
cow, seventy-three for horse-dung, one hundred and 
twenty -five for cow-dung \ while the mixed excrements 
of either animals would correspond with the fact, that the 
discharges of the cow offer no resemblance to those of the 
horse. 

Besides their general relative value, namely, as to the 
proportions of nitrogen they contain, the above matters 
have a further special V'alue, dependent upon the diversity 
of saline, and other organic matters which they severally 
contain. Thus, three of dried flesh are equal to five of 
pigeons' dung, as far as nitrogen is concerned ; but then 
pigeons' dung contains a quantity of bone, earth, and 
saline matter, scarcely present in the former. Hence, the 
dung of fowls will benefit vegetation in some instances 
where even horse-flesh, ordinarily regarded as a strong 
manure, would fail. And why ? Evidently because, if 



ANIMAL MANURE. 285 

saline matters are deficient in the soil, an excessive supply 
of nitrogen will not serve as their substitute. So the liquid 
excretions contain much important saline matter not pre- 
sent in solid dang, nor in such substances as horn, hair, or 
wool ; and therefore each must be capable of exercising 
its own peculiar influence, and be comparatively useless if 
deficient of those matters which are also found wanting, 
deficient, yet necessary in the soil. This affords the reason 
why no one manure can long answer on the same land : 
it can only supply the materials it contains. When all the 
silicate of potash in corn-fields is exhausted, urine will not, 
cannot, supply the deficiency ; because it contains no sili- 
cate of potash. So long as the land remained rich in this 
material, urine or blood would supply the requisite nitro- 
gen. Hence, in all ages and countries, the habit of em- 
ploying mixed manures and artificial composts has been 
universally diffused. What is wanting is, a more accu- 
rate knowledge of the precise deficiency at any given mo- 
ment, and a consequent saving of capital from unnecessary 
waste, together with an immense increase in fertility, as 
the reward of so accurate an adaptation of means and 
ends. The knowledge of a disease is essential to the cor- 
rect application of a remedy. 

A high degree of culture requires an increased supply of 
manure. With its abundance, the produce in corn and 
cattle will augment, but must diminish with its deficiency. 

From the foregoing remarks, it must be evident, that 
the greatest value should be attached to the liquid excre- 
ments of man and animals when a manure is desired which 
shall supply nitrogen to the soil. And as nitrogen is sel- 
dom wanted alone, — and as, generally, in practice, both 
liquid and solid excrements are found associated, contain- 
ing, besides nitrogen, many other essential and invaluable 
ingredients, — too much care cannot be taken, not only in 
preserving them, but which is equally important, in seem- 
ing to the land the full value of their operation, by 
applying them in the best possible condition for the 
development of their powers. 



286 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

We have already alluded to the loss sustained by the 
fermentation of dung-heaps. As we observed, in an 
earlier chapter when it is considered that, with every pound 
of ammonia which evaporates, a loss of sixty •pounds of 
grain is sustained, and that, with every pound of urine, a 
pound of wheat might be produced, the indifference with 
which liquid refuse is allowed to run to waste is quite 
incomprehensible. That it should be allowed to expend 
its ammonia by fermentation in the dung-heap, and evapo- 
ration into the atmosphere, is ascribable solely to ignorance 
of the elementary outlines of that science which hitherto 
the practical farmer has thought it no disgrace, but 
rather an honor to publish, glorying in his utter disregard 
of all bookish knowledge! and substituting his own 
notions of wasteful and vague experience for the calm 
deductions of sound and rational investigation. In most 
places, only the solid excrements impregnated with the 
liquid are used ; and the dunghills containing them are pro- 
tected neither from evaporation, nor from rain. The solid 
excrements contain the insoluble, the liquid excrements all 
the soluble phosphates ; and the latter contain, likewise, all 
the potash which existed as organic salts in the plants 
consumed by the animals which fed upon them. 

It is by no means difficult to prevent the destructive fer- 
mentation and heating of farm-yard compost. The sur- 
face should be defended from the oxygen of the atmos- 
phere. A compact marl, or a tenacious clay, offers the 
best protection against the air; and before the dung is 
covered over, or, as it were, sealed up, it should be dried 
as much as possible. If the dung be found at any time to 
heat strongly, it should be turned over, and cooled by 
exposure to air. Watering dung-hills is sometimes recom- 
mended for checking the process of putrefaction, and the 
consequent escape of ammonia; but this practice is not 
consistent with correct chemistry. It may cool the dung 
for a short time ; but moisture is a principal agent in all 
processes of decomposition. Water, or moisture, is as 
necessary to the change as air > and to supply it to reek- 



ANIMAL MANURE. 287 

ing duug, is to supply an agent which will hasten its 
decay. 

If a thermometer, plunged into the dung, does not rise 
much above blood-heat, there is little danger of the escape 
of ammonia. When a piece of paper, moistened with 
spirit of salt, or muriatic acid, held over the steams arising 
from a dung-hill, gives dense fumes, it is a certain test 
that decomposition is going too far ; for this indicates that 
ammonia is not only formed, but is escaping to unite with 
the acid in the shape of sal-ammoniac. 

When dung is to be preserved for any time, the situa- 
tion in which it is kept is of importance. It should, if 
possible, be defended from the sun. To preserve it under 
sheds would be of great use, or to make the site of a 
duno'-hill on the north side of a wall. The floor on which 
the dung is heaped, should, if possible, be paved with flat 
stones ; and there should be a little inclination from each 
side towards the centre, in which there should be drains, 
connected with a small well, furnished with a pump, by 
which any fluid matter may be collected for the use of the 
land. It too often happens, that a heavy, thick, extract- 
ive fluid is suffered to drain away from the dung-hill, so as 
to be entirely lost to the farm. 

Night-soil, it is well known, is a very powerful 
manure, and very liable to decompose. Human excre- 
ments differ in their composition, but always abound in 
nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. From the 
analysis of Berzelius, it appears that a part of it is always 
soluble in water ; and in whatever state it is used, whether 
recent or decomposed, it supplies abundant food to plants. 
But this affords no excuse for its misapplication in any 
other condition than that which is most profitable. It 
varies, no doubt, in richness with the food of the inhabit- 
ants of each district, — chiefly with the quantity of animal 
food they consume, — but, when dry, no other solid ma- 
nure, weight for weight, can probably be compared with 
it in general efficacy. The soluble and saline matters it 
contains are made up from the constituents of the food we 



288 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

eat ; of course, it contains most of those elementary sub- 
stances which are necessary to the growth of the plants 
on which we live. The disagreeable smell of night-soil 
may be destroyed by quick lime. If exposed to the air in 
thin layers strewed over with lime, in fine weather, it 
speedily dries, is easily pulverised, and, in this state, may 
be used in the same manner as rape-cake, and delivered 
into the furrow with the seed. If nio;ht-soil be treated in 
a proper manner, so as to remove the moisture it contains, 
without permitting the escape of its ammonia, it may be 
put into such a form as will allow it to be transported 
even to great distances. This is already attempted in 
many places ; and the preparation of human excrements 
for exportation constitutes not an unimportant branch of 
industry. But the manner in which this is done, is not 
always the most judicious. In Paris, the excrements are 
preserved in the houses in open casks, from which they are 
collected and placed in deep pits at Montfaucon ; but they 
are not sold until they have attained a certain degree of 
dryness by evaporation in the air. But whilst lying in 
the receptacles appropriated for them in the houses, the 
greatest part of their urea is converted into carbonate of 
ammonia; lactate and phosphate of ammonia are also 
formed, and the vegetable matters contained in them 
putrefy ; all their sulphates are decomposed, whilst their 
sulphur forms sulphuretted hydrogen. The mass, when 
dried by exposure to the air, has lost more than half of the 
nitrogen which the excrements originally contained ; for 
the ammonia escapes into the atmosphere along with the 
water which evaporates; and the residue now consists 
principally of phosphate and lactate of ammonia, and 
small quantities of urate of magnesia and fatty matter. 
Nevertheless, it is still a very powerful manure; but its 
value as such would be twice or four times as great, if the 
excrements, before being dried, were neutralized with a 
cheap mineral acid. 

In other manufactories of manure, the excrements, 
whilst still soft, are mixed with the ashes of wood, or with 



ANIMAL MANURE. 289 

earth ; both of which substances contain a large quantity 
of caustic lime, by means of which a complete expulsion of 
all their ammonia is effected, and they are completely 
deprived of smell. But such a residue applied as manure, 
can act only by the phosphates which it still contains ; for 
all the ammoniacal salts have been decomposed, and their 
ammonia expelled. In London, night-soil is dried with 
various mixtures ; while, in other of our large towns, 
what is called " animalized charcoal" is prepared by mix- 
ing and drying night-soil with gypsum and ordinary wood 
charcoal in fine powder. In all cases, the excrements of 
human beings contain more nitrogen than those of any 
other animal. Berzelius obtained, by the burning of 100 
parts of dried excrements, 15 parts of ashes, principally 
composed of the phosphates of lime and magnesia. 

It is quite certain that the vegetable constituents of the 
excrements with which we manure our fields, cannot be 
entirely without influence upon the growth of the crops 
on them ; for they will decay, and thus furnish carbonic 
acid to the young plants. But it cannot be imagined that 
their influence is very great, when it is considered that a 
good soil is manured only once every six or seven years ; 
that the quantity of carbon thus given to the land corres- 
ponds only to 5 per cent, of what is removed in the form 
of herbs, straw, or grain ; and further, that the rain-water 
received by a soil contains much more carbon in the form 
of carbonic acid than these vegetable constituents of ani- 
mal excrement. 

The peculiar action, then, of solid, as opposed to fluid, 
animal excrements, is limited to their inorganic consti- 
tuents,rather than to the presence of the partially changed 
vegetable or organized matter which they contain. Horse- 
dung contains a large proportion of such partially altered 
vegetable matter ; and the reason why night-soil is a more 
powerful manure, is that, relatively, it contains less vege- 
table matter, while nitrogen is more abundant ; and this, 
principally, because its weight is materially made up by 
the liquid excrement, or urine, always forming part of its 
14* 



£9(5 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

composition. Now, urine easily putrefies, and yields am- 
monia largely ; and this because of its containing more 
animal matter than is contained in dung. A horse lives 
exclusively on vegetables ; and 100 pounds of the urine 
of a healthy man (living, of course, partially upon flesh, 
and partly upon those seeds and parts of plants containing 
nitrogen, in quantity) "will yield as much nitrogen as 1300 
pounds of fresh horse-dung, or 600 of cow-dung. We 
cannot ascribe much of the power of the excrements of 
cattle, sheep, and horses, to the nitrogen which they con- 
tain, for the quantity derivable from these vegetable feed- 
ers is too minute. The restoration of inorganic matter to 
the land, is the chief value arising from the application of 
the dung of cattle. A certain amount of inorganic mat- 
ter is removed with every crop. If we manure that land 
with the dung of the cow or sheep, we restore to the sur- 
face silicate of potash, and some salts of phosphoric acid. 
If we use horse-dung, we supply, chiefly, phosphate of 
magnesia and silicate of potash. In the straw which has 
served as litter, we add a further quantity of silicate of 
potash, and phosphates, which, if the straw be already 
putrefied, are exactly in the same state as before they 
formed part of the crop which yielded them. 

But, if we use human excrements, in addition to the 
phosphates of lime and magnesia, we supply a larger 
proportion of compounds of nitrogen, essential to the 
development of those parts of plants upon which human 
beings are accustomed to feed : and, by a wise ordination, 
cereal-plants are found associated with human dwellings, 
— in other words, the family of man having selected such 
spots on the earth's surface as are fitted for the growth of 
grain, animal manure is always at hand in quantity for its 
artificial cultivation ; thus restoring, through the feculent 
discharges of man and animals resident on the spot, 
precisely those materials which the process of growth has 
removed from the soil. 

g* Cow-dung is not incorrectly said to be " cold :" so much 
of the saline, nutritive, and other organic matters from the 



ANIMAL MANURE. 291 

cow, pass off almost exclusively with her urine, that her 
dung does not readily heat and run into putrefaction. 
Still, mixed with other manures, or well diffused through 
the soil, its vegetable matter is not useless. It loses more 
than any other similar substance in drying. The dung of 
pigs is soft and cold, like that of the cow ; containing, like 
it, nearly 80 per cent, of water. Mixed with other 
manures, it may be applied to any crop ; but is of very 
variable quality, owing to the variety of food of the animal. 

The horse is fed, generally, on less liquid food, less 
succulent and watery, than that of oxen. He discharges 
less urine, — hence his duns: is richer in animalized matter ; 
or, adopting the figurative language of the farmer, it is 
hotter, and, indeed, runs more readily into the ^putrefactive 
fermentation. 

If the solid excrements of animals are chiefly valuable 
for the saline, earthy, and inorganic constituents they 
restore to the soil which has yielded them, it will be readily 
inferred, that instead of dung or night-soil, other substan- 
ces, containing their peculiar ingredients, may be substitut- 
ed. One hundred tons of fresh horse-dung, if dried, would 
leave only from 25 to 30 tons of solid matter, the rest 
being only water; and if this dried matter (itself only 
one-fourth of the original weight) were burnt, so as to 
decompose its vegetable ingredients, we should obtain, 
perhaps, 10 per cent, of really useful saline and earthy 
matters (one-fortieth of the original weight), according 
to the richness or poverty of the food the horse had taken. 

Now, this minute proportion of saline and earthy mat- 
ters, and its relative quantity, in the various kinds of dung 
or excrement, forms, evidently, the chief topic of interest 
to which our attention should be directed ; inasmuch as 
what is left upon such examination and analysis, is exactly 
what has made up the component inorganic parts of the 
hay, straw, grass, or oats, on which the animal has been 
fed ; or, in other words, exactly what has been removed 
from the soil, and requires to be replaced, if the next crop 
is to equal the last. If our object is increased fertility, 



292 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

more must be added than has been taken away. Hay, 
straw, and oats, form (for illustration' sake) the food of 
a horse. Their principal constituents are the phosphates 
of lime and magnesia, carbonate of lime, and silicate of 
potash ; the first three of these preponderated in the corn, 
the latter in the hay ; and these, removed from the soil 
with the crop, are precisely the saline matters which would 
be found in the excrement of the animal for whose support 
that crop was intended. 

In order, then, to atone for the absence of that excre- 
ment which derives its value from the soil which has pro- 
duced it, and for which it is peculiarly fitted, as containing 
what that soil has lost, the ashes of wood or bones may often 
be judiciously substituted ; and for this reason : wood- 
ashes contain silicate of potash, exactly in the same 
proportion as that salt is found to exist in the straw of the 
last crop ; and as to bones, the greatest part of their bulk 
consists of the phosphates of lime and magnesia. Ashes 
obtained from various trees are of unequal value: those 
from oak-wood are the least, those from beech most ser- 
viceable. With every 100 pounds of the ashes of the 
beech spread over a soil, we furnish as much phosphates 
as 460 pounds of fresh night-soil could yield. But night- 
soil contains other useful matters besides phosphates; 
hence the utility of mixed composts, as, evidently, the ashes 
of the beech would not alone secure fertility. 

Bone manure possesses still greater importance than 
wood ashes as a substitute for an indefinite and large sup- 
ply of animal excrement. The primary sources from 
which the bones of animals are derived are,— the hay, 
straw, or other substances which they take as food. Now, 
bones contain more than half their weight of the phos- 
phates of lime and magnesia ; and hay contains as much 
of these salts as wheat straw. It follows then, that 8 
pounds of bones contain as much phosphate of lime as 
1000 pounds of hay or wheat straw ; and 2 pounds of bones 
as much as is found in 1000 of the grain of wheat or oats. 
These numbers express pretty exactly the quantity of 



ANIMAL MANURE. 293 

phosphates which a soil yields annually on the growth of 
hay and corn. Upon every acre of land appropriated to 
the growth of wheat, clover, potatoes, or turnips, forty 
pounds of bone-dust will be found sufficient to furnish an 
adequate supply of phosphates for three successive crops. 

To secure the best application of bones, they should be 
reduced to powder; and the more intimately they are 
mixed with the soil, the more easily are they taken up 
and assimilated. The most easy and practical mode of 
effecting this, is to pour over the bones, in powder, half 
their weight of sulphuric acid (or oil of vitriol), diluted 
with three or four parts of water ; and after they have re- 
mained in contact for some time, say a fortnight, to add 
one hundred parts of water, and sprinkle this mixture over 
the field before the plow. Bones may be preserved un- 
changed, for thousands of years, in dry, or even in moist 
soils, provided the access of rain be prevented, as is exem- 
plified by the bones of animals, buried previous to the 
Flood, found in loam or gypsum ; the interior parts being 
protected by the exterior from the action of water. But 
they become warm when reduced to a fine powder ; and 
moistened bones generate heat, and enter into putrefaction 
— the gelatine w r hich they contain is decomposed, and its 
nitrogen converted into carbonate of ammonia, and other 
ammoniacal salts, which are retained, in a great measure, 
by the powder itself. Bones burnt till quite white, and 
recently heated to redness, will absorb seven times their 
volume of ammoniacal gas. The analysis of bone enables 
us to say, that while 100 pounds of bone-dust add to the 
soil 33 of gelatine, the organized substance of horn, or as 
much organized matter as is contained in 300 or 400 
pounds of blood or flesh ; they add, at the same time, more 
than half their weight of inorganic matter, lime, magne- 
sia, soda, common salt, and phosphoric acid, in combina- 
tion with some of these — all of which, as we have seen, 
must be present in a fertile soil, since the plants require 
a certain supply of them all at every period of their growth, 
but more especially during the maturation of the straw 



•294 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

and grain. These substances, like the inorganic matter 
of plants plowed into the soil, may, and do, exert a bene- 
ficial agency upon vegetation after all the organized struc- 
ture of such decaying plants is broken up and destroyed. 
One hundred parts of dry bones contain 33 per cent, of 
dry gelatine, and are equivalent to 250 parts of recent 
human urine. We do not speak now of the bone-dust 
which remains after all the animal gelatine is removed, in 
boiling them to extract size for the calico-printer. 

Horn is a still more powerful manure than bone — that 
is to say, it contains a greater proportion of organized ani- 
mal matter. The peculiarity is, that horn, hair, and wool, 
as organized substances, are dry ; while blood and flesh 
contain from 80 to 90 per cent, their weight of water. 
Hence, a ton of horn-shavings, of hair, or of dry woollen 
rags, ought to enrich the soil with as much animal matter 
(and consequently nitrogen) as would be yielded by ten 
tons of blood. In consequence of this dryness, horn and 
wool decompose more slowly than blood ; and hence, the 
effect of soft animal matters is more immediate and appa- 
rent than that of hard and dry animal matters, the action 
of which is, nevertheless, stronger, and continues for a 
longer period. 

The refuse of the different manufactories of skin and 
leather form very useful animal manures; such as the 
shavings of the currier, furrier's clippings, and the offals 
of the tan-yard and of the glue-maker. The gelatine con- 
tained in every kind of skin is in a state fitted for its gra- 
dual decomposition ; and when buried in the soil, it lasts 
for a considerable time, and constantly affords a supply of 
nutritive matter to the plants in its neighborhood. These 
manures contain nitrogen as well as phosphates, and, con- 
sequently, are well fitted to aid the process of vegetable 
growth. 

From what has been stated, we may arrive at the fol- 
lowing conclusions : — 

1. That fresh human urine yields nitrogen in greater 
abundance to vegetation than any other material of easy 



VALUE OF VEGETABLE MANURE. 295 

acquisition ; and that the urine of animals is valuable for 
the same purpose, but not equally so. 

2. That the mixed excrements of man and animals yield 
(if carefully preserved from further decomposition), not 
only nitrogen, but other invaluable saline and earthy mat- 
ters that have been already extracted in food from the soil. 

3. That animal substances which, like urine, flesh, and 
blood, decompose rapidly, are fitted to operate immedi- 
ately and powerfully on vegetation. 

4. That dry animal substances, as horn, hair, or woollen 
rags, decompose slowly, and (weight for weight) contain 
a greater quantity of organized as well as unorganized 
materials, manifesting their influence, it may be, for seve- 
ral seasons. 

5. That bones, acting like horn, in so far as their ani- 
mal matter is concerned, and like it, for a number of sea- 
sons more or less, according as they have been more or 
less finely crushed, may ameliorate the soil by their earthy 
matter for a long period (even if the jelly they contain 
have been injuriously removed by the size-maker), per- 
manently improving the condition and adding to the natu- 
ral capabilities of the land. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Of the comparative Value of Vegetable Manure, as contrasted with 
Animal Excrements. 

It may be asked, if the principal sources of the nitro- 
gen required for the artificial forcing of corn-plants be 
the feculent excretions of man and animals — if the object 
be chiefly to replace in the soil those matters which have 
been abstracted with the previous crop — how is it that 
such excrements more effectually restore those elements 
than would occur if the ripe crop were plowed into the 



296 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

soil ; in other words, how is it that dung and urine are 
richer in nitrogen than the food from w T hich they are 
formed ? 

The answer is easy and obvious. The bulk of a vege- 
table is chiefly woody fibre or carbon. A horse lives 
exclusively upon vegetables, and discharges from his lungs, 
in breathing, a large portion of the carbon his food con- 
tains ; hence, what is left to be thrown off from his kid- 
neys and bowels, contains relatively a greater proportion 
of nitrogen which could only be otherwise feebly sup- 
plied to the soil from the rain-water of the atmosphere, 
while the air yields to the land carbon in abundance. 
Nearly the whole of the nitrogen contained in his food 
(indeed, all beyond what is necessary for the wants of his 
own living system) is thrown off in his urine and dung. 
In the food consumed, the carbon was to the nitrogen as 
9 to 1 : in that which remains, after breathing has done 
its work, the carbon is to the nitrogen in the proportion 
of only 2 to 1. It is out of this residue, rich in nitrogen, 
that the several parts of animal bodies are built up. 
Warm-blooded animals with capacious lungs, double and 
triple their weight very rapidly after birth : they take in 
(as lambs or calves after separation from the parent) only 
vegetable food ; but the rapidity of its decomposition is 
the index or ratio of the rapidity of their growth. Their 
actions are lively ; and the playful exertion of their mus- 
cles renders the decomposing play of the heart, and con- 
sequently of the lungs, more frequent than when fully 
grown. During their quick growth, they absorb all the 
nitrogen their food contains, while they throw off carbon 
from the lungs. After growth is finished, they still throw 
off, in breathing, nearly all the carbon, while the residual 
quantity of nitrogen (not wanted for the purposes of the 
living system) escapes in the dung and urine. The urine 
of a child would not, upon putrefaction, disengage the 
same quantity of ammonia as that of a full-grown man. 
Hence the reason why bodies can be nourished and built 
up upon food comparatively poor in nitrogen ; and yet 



VALUE OF VEGETABLE MANURE. 297 

i ot only do those same bodies contain nitrogen in quan- 
tity, but also their excretions are rich in the same element. 
The more nitrogen that is appropriated by growing cattle, 
the less will pass off into the fold-yard ; hence itis natural 
to expect that the manure, either liquid or solid, which 
accumulates where many young animals are fed, will not 
be so rich as that yielded by full-grown cattle, unless, by 
giving richer food to the young cattle than they actually 
require or can dispose of, the difference to the dung-heap 
be made up. A little acquaintance, then, with first prin- 
ciples will explain the seeming difficulty, how it is that 
the dung or urine of animals has a greater fertilizing power 
than even the whole weight of the food which they have 
consumed would have, if laid upon the soil. Its carbon 
has passed through the lungs of animals that have eaten 
it into the atmosphere : and the soil can always supply 
itself with sufficient carbon from the decomposition of the 
carbonic acid of the air : wmile its natural supply of nitro- 
gen for the plants which grow on its surface is limited 
to the decomposition of the ammonia, and the evolution of 
nitrogen from rain-water ,— a quantity which, though suf- 
ficient for the sustenance of crabs, will not serve for 
apples; and we must remember, that corn-plants are not 
in a state of nature, — wild oats or potatoes are widely dif- 
ferent from the same plants under the care and culture of 
man. The difference between a wild and a cultivated 
vegetable is not merely an increment of size, but the 
development of those parts which, though naturally con- 
taining nitrogen, contain, proportionally, far less than by 
artificial culture they may be compelled to take up. 

The doctrine of the proper application of manures from 
organized substances offers an illustration of an important 
part of the economy of nature, and of the happy order in 
which it is arranged. The death and decay of animal 
substances tend to resolve organized forms into elementary 
constituents ; and the pernicious effluvia disengaged in the 
process seem to point out the propriety of burying them in 
the soil, where they arc fitted to become the food of vege- 



298 PRODUCTIVE FARMING, 

tables. The fermentation and putrefaction of organized 
substances in the free atmosphere are noxious processes ; 
beneath the surface of the ground, they are salutary opera- 
tions. In this case, the food of plants is prepared where it 
can be used ; and that which would offend the senses and 
injure the health, if exposed, is converted, by gradual pro- 
cesses, into forms of beauty and of usefulness ; the stink- 
ing gas is rendered a constituent of the perfume of a flower ; 
and what might be poison, swells the food of animals 
and man. 



CHAPTER X. 



Of Manures of Mineral Origin, or Fossil and Artificial or Chemical 
Manures ; their Preparation, and the Manner in which they Act. — 
Of Lime in its Different States ; its operation as a manure. — Of Al- 
kalies, and Common Salt, as to their Action upon the Land. 

From what has been already said, a great variety of 
substances contribute to the growth of plants, and supply 
the materials of their nourishment. How matters that 
have once been living are in turn converted into the sub- 
stance of other living things, may be comprehended ; but 
it is more difficult to understand those operations by which 
earthy and saline matters are taken up and consolidated in 
the fibre of vegetables. 

Sir Humphrey Davy, quoting the experiments of conti- 
nental chemists who had preceded him, states, on their au- 
thority, that different seeds sown in fine sand — flour of 
brimstone, or rust of iron, and supplied only with air and 
water, produced healthy plants, which by analysis yield- 
ed various earthy and saline matters, which were not 
contained either in the seeds or the material in which they 
grew ; and hence they and he concluded, that they must 
have been formed from air or water, in consequence of the 
agencies of the living organs of the plant. 



MINERAL MANURES. 299 

It would be impossible to pass this interesting fact, with- 
out observing how strikingly it confirms the views advanc- 
ed in the preceding pages as to the origin of nitrogen from 
the ammonia in rain-water. Sir Humphrey contends, from 
some subsequent experiments, that the atmosphere yields 
no saline matter to plants ; but the existence of ammonia 
in rain-water, if not unknown to that distinguished chem- 
ist, was overlooked in his computation. 

The only substances that can, with propriety, be called 
fossil manures, and which are found unmixed with the re- 
mains of any organized beings, are certain alkaline earths, 
or alkalies, and their combinations. 

The only alkaline earths "which have been hitherto ap- 
plied in this way, are lime and magnesia. Potash and 
soda, the two fixed alkalies, are both used in certain of 
their chemical compounds, but never in a pure or caustic 
state. 

The most common form in which lime is found on the 
surface of the earth, is in a state of combination with car- 
bonic acid. We have already alluded to some of its chem- 
ical properties in a previous section of this work. When 
common limestone is burnt in the kiln, the carbonic acid 
gas is driven off by the heat, and nothing remains but the 
pure caustic earth. If the fire have been very high, it ap- 
proaches to one-half the weight of the stone; but, in com- 
mon cases, limestones, if well dried before burning, do 
not lose much more than from 35 to 40 per cent., or from 
7 parts to 8 out of 20. 

Very few limestones, or chalks, consist entirely of lime 
and carbonic acid. Statuary marble is nearly a pure car- 
bonate of lime. When a limestone does not copiously 
effervesce in acids, and is yet sufficiently hard to scratch 
glass, it contains the earth of flint, and, probably, the earth 
of clay. When brownish or yellowish-red, the tinge, in 
all probability, depends upon the presence of iron. If not 
hard enough to scratch glass, if the stone effervesce slowly 
or but slightly with acids, and the solution have a milky 
appearance, — most probably magnesia is present, 



300 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

Before any opinion be formed of the manner in which 
the different ingredients in limestones modify their proper- 
ties, and their consequent action upon the soil, it will be 
necessary to consider the action of pure, or recently burnt 
caustic lime, when employed for agricultural purposes. 

Quicklime, — in its pure state, whether in powder, or dis- 
solved in minute proportion, in water, — is directly injuri- 
ous to plants. Grass may be certainly killed by sprinkling 
it with lime-water; but since lime is a necessary ingre- 
dient in soils, and an useful addition in many cases, it evi- 
dently must be that its combination with carbonic acid — 
the state in which it is found naturally — is the circum- 
stance which not merely renders it void of causticity, but 
so far alters its properties, as to exchange injury for advan- 
tage. Lime, if pure, and recently burnt, cannot long re- 
main caustic, inasmuch as it rapidly attracts sufficient car- 
bonic acid from the atmosphere to reduce it to the state of 
chalk, or a carbonate ; and it is a wise arrangement that 
it is so, — that it is never found, in nature, pure, or free from 
this acid. 

Nevertheless, there are cases in which the application 
of caustic lime may be requisite. If it be mixed with any 
moist, fibrous, vegetable matter, there is a strong action 
between the lime and the vegetable fibrin : they form a 
kind of compost together, of which a part is usually solu- 
ble in water. By this kind of operation, lime renders mat- 
ter which was comparatively inert, nutritive, or, at least, 
soluble ; and as charcoal and oxygen abound in all plants, 
the lime becomes at the same time usefully converted, even 
by their agency, into a carbonate. It is obvious, then, 
that the operation of quicklime, and that of marl or chalk, 
depends upon principles altogether different. Quicklime, 
in being applied to land, tends to bring any hard vegetable 
matter that it contains into a more rapid and easy state of 
decomposition ; while chalky forms of lime only add the 
necessary amount of this earth, so as to furnish the requi- 
site supply to be absorbed as part of the inorganic structure 
of the plants which grow in that spot, Quicklime, when 



MINERAL MANURES. 301 

it becomes mild by exposure, acts in the same way as 
chalk, but, in the act of becoming mild, it prepares soluble 
out of insoluble matter. 

It is upon this circumstance that the operation of lime 
in the preparation for wheat crops depends, and its efficacy 
in fertilizing peats, and in bringing into a state of cultiva- 
tion all soils abounding in hard roots, dry fibres, or unde- 
composed and, therefore, useless vegetable matter. 

So, then, the solution of the question, Whether quick- 
lime ought to be applied to a soil 1 depends upon the 
quantity of the undecomposed vegetable matter that soil 
contains ; and the answer to the question, Whether marl, 
or any chalky carbonate of lime, ought to be applied 1 
evidently depends upon whether the previous crops have 
exhausted the requisite quantity of lime necessary to form 
part of the inorganic material of the crop that is intended 
to be raised there. All soils are improved by mild lime, 
because each successive crop takes a portion of lime away. 
But, perhaps, one of the most important and influential 
agencies of lime in the soil to which it is added, is to be 
found in its ready combination with nitric acid, which it 
assists in forming, from the facility with which it promotes 
the union of its already existing elements, nitrogen and 
oxygen. Nitrate of lime, which, by a series of inevitable 
actions, is produced in the decomposing soil, is very solu- 
ble in water : entering readily into the roots of plants, it 
forms the medium by which lime becomes part of a vege- 
table, (for, as before stated, the earths and alkalies never 
enter a plant in a pure, free, caustic, or uncombined state), 
and producing upon growth effects precisely similar to 
those of the now well-known nitrate of soda. Plowing, 
harrowing, digging, and turning over the soil to the action 
of the air, is useful, chiefly, because it facilitates the more 
ready action of the atmosphere, indispensable to the for- 
mation of these nitrates. 

Besides pure, or caustic lime, and its carbonate, in the 
form of chalk or marl, the application of gypsum, or sul- 
phate of lime, — sometimes called alabaster, or plaster of 



302 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

Paris, — deserves a passing notice. Great difference of 
opinion has prevailed among agriculturists as to its use. 
Correct notions as to the nature of vegetable growth, an 
exact acquaintance with the constitution of plants intended 
to be raised upon a given locality, and the admitted neces- 
sity for an equally exact acquaintance with the existing 
condition of that soil, so as to adapt the one to the other, 
— in fact, a better knowledge of agricultural chemistry, — 
is all that alone is wanting, or can solve the variety of 
opinion as to its employment. Doubtlessly, if lime be de- 
ficient in a soil, though marl, or the carbonate, is more 
easily susceptible of action, the sulphate or gypsum, which 
is less so, less easily decomposed, is better than none. Sul- 
phuric acid has a stronger affinity for lime than carbonic 
acid can exert ; hence, gypsum does not so readily enter 
into new combinations. It has been said, that sulphate of 
lime assists the putrefactive decomposition of animal sub- 
stances, — that it hastens the evolution of ammonia, and 
the consequent development of nitrogen ; but the experi- 
ments of Sir Humphrey Davy disprove this view of the 
case. It would appear that peat-ashes naturally contain 
gypsum in abundance. These peat- ashes are used with 
advantage in some parts of the country, as a top-dressing 
for cultivated grasses, particularly clover ; and, in examin- 
ing the ashes of sainfoin and clover, they have been found 
to contain gypsum in quantity, proving that lime, in the 
form of a sulphate, is a necessary ingredient in the consti- 
tution of some vegetables. The practical deduction from 
such investigations obviously is, that if clover be intended 
to be raised upon a soil deficient of lime, in the form of a 
sulphate, gypsum will not only constitute an advantageous 
manure, but one that is absolutely essential to the produc- 
tion of a vigorous, abundant, and healthy crop. 

Phosphate of lime is another combination of this earth 
with an acid. It forms the greatest part of calcined bones, 
of the utility and application of which we have already 
spoken. It exists in most excrementitious substances, and 
is an essential constituent of the straw and grain of wheat, 



MINERAL MANURES. 303 

barley, oats, and rye, and likewise in beans, peas, and 
vetches. It exists in some places, in these islands, native, 
but only in small quantities. Phosphate of lime is gene- 
rally conveyed to the land in the composition of other ma- 
nure, and is absolutely necessary to corn crops. Bone- 
ashes, ground to powder, are useful on arable land that is 
deficient in lime, or its phosphate, especially if there be a 
superabundance of vegetable matter. If lime, or its phos- 
phate, be the only deficient ingredient in the land, — if it 
already contain, or be at the same time supplied with ani- 
mal manure, yielding nitrogen, — then bone-dust may prove 
useful. 

Wood-ashes consist principally of the vegetable alkali, 
or potash, united to carbonic acid ; and as this alkali is 
found in almost all plants, it is net difficult to conceive that 
it may form an essential part of their organs. The gene- 
ral tendency of the alkalies applied as manure is, to sup- 
ply the deficiency occasioned by what is removed with the 
previous crops. Wood-ash contains not only carbonate 
of potash, but also the sulphate of potash and silicate of 
potash ; hence its utility, as affording silex to wheat straw, 
— a material essential to its firmness and stability. These 
saline matters in wood-ash are all valuable, as supplying 
the necessary inorganic constituents of plants; and hence 
the extensive use of wood-ash, as a manure, in every coun- 
try where it can readily be procured. 

Peat-ashes vary, in constitution, with the kind of peat 
from which they have been prepared. They often contain 
traces of potash and soda, and generally a quantity of sul- 
phate and carbonate of lime, a trace of phosphate of lime, 
and much siliceous matter. In almost every country where 
peat abounds, the value of peat-ashes, as a manure, has 
been more or less generally recognized. 

Kelp. — The ash left by the burning of sea-weed contains 
potash, soda, silica, sulphur, and several other of the inor- 
ganic constituents of plants, and is usefully and extensively 
employed in many districts near the sea, where plants 
naturally requiring these materials grow more luxuriantly 



304 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

than in more inland districts. Sea-weeds decompose with 
great rapidity when collected in heaps and laid upon the 
land. During their decay, they not only yield inorganic 
saline matter to the soil, but enrich it with an additional 
layer of vegetable mould. 

Jf Urate of soda, and nitrate of potash, or saltpetre. — These 
substances have been much commended for their beneficial 
action upon growing plants. They impart to the leaves a 
deeper green, and evidently quicken vegetable action: 
they are applied advantageously to grass and young corn, 
at the rate of a hundred weight of either to an acre. The 
nitric acid they contain yields the additional nitrogen be- 
yond the quantity the plants can obtain by decomposing 
the ammonia contained in the rain that falls upon them ; at 
the same time, the other ingredient — potash or soda, as the 
case may be — is put within the reach of their roots, to be 
absorbed as an inorganic, yet necessary constituent. 

Common salt, muriate of soda, or, more correctly, a 
compound of the metal sodium with elementary chlorine, 
is undoubtedly indispensable to the fertility of many inland 
soils. It is not without design that the spray of the sea is 
allowed to be borne by the winds for many miles over the 
shore, so supplying an ample dressing of common salt to 
the land. A minute quantity is absolutely necessary to 
the healthy growth of all our cultivated crops, and most 
lands (in this island at least) contain a sufficient quantity 
of it for the purposes of vegetation. Common salt is found 
in every species of animal manure, and will be found most 
requisite in high situations exposed to the washing of heavy 
rains, which tend to remove the soluble alkaline matters 
from the soil. 

Much diversity of opinion has prevailed as to the utility 
of this substance. The Cheshire farmers plead in its favor. 
On the other hand, that salt, in large quantities, renders 
land barren, was known long before any records of agri- 
cultural science existed. We read in Scripture, that Abi- 
melech took the city of Shechem, and sowed the land 
with salt, that the spot might be for ever unfruitful. Pliny,. 



MINERAL MANURES. 305 

a Latin historian, though he recommends giving salt to 
cattle, yet affirms, that when strewed over land it renders 
it barren. But these form no argument against the proper 
application of it There can be no question that salt, as 
well as many other similar mineral substances, is really 
useful to vegetation ; yet the intelligent agriculturist ought 
not to be surprised to find, that a substance which is use- 
ful, because necessary and deficient in one instance, may be 
positively in excess, and consequently injurious, if added 
in another. He will try cautiously, and upon a small 
scale, whether this or that material seems fitted to answer 
his intention ; or, what is far better than blind hit-.or-miss 
experiment, he will endeavor to ascertain the actual con- 
stitution of the soil, and not expect to grow wheat where 
there is no phosphate of lime or silicate of potash ; nor 
plants which thrive best near the sea, in a soil which he 
knows to be devoid of common salt If salt be there, it 
is a needless and foolish waste to attempt to improve the 
land by adding more. If he has already bricks enough at 
hand, you must carry the builder mortar : more bricks will 
not supply the place of mortar. So, if the soil contain 
lime, or magnesia, or potash, in sufficient abundance for 
the wants of the plant it is our object artificially to force, 
it may still be deficient of other materials, and here the 
skill and science of one man stand in beautiful contrast 
with the blundering, bungling guesses of another. 

At a meeting of the Chemical Society, a paper was 
lately read containing a report of some experiments with 
saline manures containing nitrogen, conducted, on the 
Manor Farm, Havering- atte-Bower, Essex, in the occupa- 
tion of C. Hall, Esq., communicated by W. M. F. Chatter- 
ley, Esq. The experiments were suggested by the pre- 
vailing opinion, that the fertilizing power of some animal 
manures, and of the salts, nitre, (nitrate of potash), nitrate 
of soda, and sulphate of ammonia, depend upon the pro- 
portion of nitrogen they contain. The salts mentioned are 
all, from their low price, within the reach of the farmer ; 
and the quantity of the last thrown into the market is 
15 



306 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

greatly increasing, from the extension of the new mode of 
purifying coal-gas from its ammonia, by washing the gas 
with dilute sulphuric acid. The interest also of experi- 
ments with salts is greater than with mixed manures, both 
to the farmer, who, from the nature of the former sub- 
stances, may depend upon their uniformity, and to the che- 
mist, as their composition is necessarily known to him. A 
field of wheat was chosen, which, in the latter end of 
April, 1842, presented a thin plant ; the salts were top- 
dressed over the land by hand, on the 12th of May, and 
the crop cut on the 10th of August, The soil was rather 
poor, consisting of a heavy clay upon a subsoil of the Lon- 
don clay. 1. No manure ; wheat per acre 1413 lbs. 2. 
With 28 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia; wheat, 1612 lbs. 
3. "With 140 lbs. of the same salt ; wheat 1999 lbs. 4. 
With 112 lbs. of nitrate of soda; wheat 1905 lbs. 5. 
With 112 lbs. of nitre; wheat, 1890 lbs. The increase 
in the straw was also considerable in all cases, except 
with the small proportion of sulphate of ammonia. The 
total increase in the four manured crops was per cent., in 
the order in which they were enumerated, — 14" 1, 41*5, 34, 
and 33*5. The cost of the manure for the three last did 
not greatly differ, being 21s. 9d., 24s. 6d., 27s. 6d. ; and 
the profit on the outlay was, w T ith the small dose of sul- 
phate of ammonia, 294 per cent. ; with the large dose, 212 
per cent. ; with the nitrate of soda, 138 per cent. ; and 
with the nitrate of potash, 92 per cent. The principal 
conclusions drawn by the author are, that the increase of 
nitrogen in the crop is greater than is accounted for by the 
nitrogen of the manures, showing that these manures have 
a stimulating effect, or enable the plants to draw additional 
nitrogenized food from the soil and atmosphere ; the con- 
siderable superiority of sulphate of ammonia over the other 
salts, and the greater proportional efficiency of a small, 
than of a large dose of that salt. The sulphate of ammo- 
nia costs 17s. per cwt. It appears best to apply this salt 
in the proportion of about 1 cwt. per acre, at three differ- 
ent dressings : the first quantity when the crop of wheat 



MINERAL MANURES. 307 

makes its spring growth, or if of oats, when about two 
inches above the ground ; the second quantity about a 
month afterwards ; and the third at the time of the forma- 
tion of the ear. To meet the practical difficulty of distri- 
buting so small a quantity as one-third of a hundred weight 
over an acre, about twice ihe quantity of common salt or 
of soot may be mixed with the ammoniacal salt. These, 
and most saline manures, when used as a top-dressing, 
should be supplied to the plant when dry, after a shower 
of rain, or during hazy weather. 

That which was true in the day of Sir Humphrey Davy, 
when experimental agricultural chemistry was in its in- 
fancy, is equally true at the present moment. He observes 
that " much of the discordance of the evidence relating to 
the efficacy of saline substances depends upon the circum- 
stance of their having been used in varying proportions, 
and in general in quantities much too large." That which 
is salutary and medicinal in moderate doses, not only may 
be, but is, absolutely poisonous in another. 

Sir Humphrey made a number of experiments on the 
effects of different saline substances on barley and on grass 
growing in the same garden, the soil of which was a light 
sand, of which 100 parts were composed of 60 parts of 
siliceous sand, and 24 parts finely-divided matter, consist- 
ing of 7 parts carbonate of lime, 12 parts alumina and 
silica, less than one part saline matter, principally com- 
mon salt, with a trace of gypsum and magnesia ; the re- 
maining 16 parts were vegetable mould. 

The solutions of the saline substances were used twice a 
week, in the quantity of two ounces, on spots of grass and 
corn, sufficiently distant from each other to prevent any 
interference of results. Several of the salts of potash, 
soda, magnesia, and ammonia, were experimentally and 
separately employed. He found that in all cases, when 
the quantity of the salt equalled one-thirtieth part of the 
weight of the water, the effects were injurious; but least 
so with the salts of ammonia. When the quantities of the 
salts were one part in three hundred of the solution, or 1 



308 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

pound to 300 pounds of water, the effects were different. 
Those spots watered with the solution of carbonate of am- 
monia were most luxuriant of all. This last result is what 
might be expected (and it agrees well with the theoretic 
views of later chemists), inasmuch as carbonate of ammo- 
nia is made up of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen ; 
all of which are essential to the supply of the additional 
quantities artificial plants require beyond that they can 
naturally obtain from the surrounding atmosphere. He 
observes that the solution of nitrate of ammonia seemed to 
be of no greater use than rain-water, and he attributes its 
failure to the circumstance of the acid being in excess. 
But Sir Humphrey was not aware that rain-water actually 
contains ammonia ; it was left to the genius of Liebig, in 
our later day, to develope that discovery. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Of the Composition of Productive Soils, and of the Agency of the 
Elements in their Natural Formation, from the rocks upon which 
they rest. 

We may now take it for granted, that every practical 
farmer will admit the position as proved, namely, that 
there must be an exact adaptation and fitness between the 
condition of any given soil and the plants intended to be 
raised upon it ; and that, if this condition does not exist 
naturally, it not only may be, but must be, artificially 
remedied. 

At this stage of the inquiry, it will be our endeavor to 
anticipate further question, and to give an exact account 
of the chemical constitution of such soils as are known to 
be best suited to the cultivation and growth of green as 
well as corn crops. 

There are in existence as many varieties of soils as 



PRODUCTIVE SOILS. 309 

there are species of rocks exposed at the surface of the 
earth. In fact, there are many more. Independently of 
the changes produced by cultivation and the exertions of 
human labor in tearing down and breaking up the surface, 
the materials of various layers have been mixed together 
and carried from place to place by various great alterations 
that, during a succession of ages, have been silently yet 
constantly carried forward in the system of our globe, 
together with the united agencies of air, water, and the 
varying alternations of summer's heat and the cold of 
winter. 

To attempt to class soils with scientific accuracy would 
be a needless labor ; the distinctions adopted by farmers 
are sufficient for our present purpose, particularly if some 
degree of exactitude be maintained in the application of 
terms. A full knowledge of modern geology is not neces- 
sary to enable a man to determine whether a field is best 
suited for arable or grazing purposes ; nor is it our inten- 
tion needlessly to employ the scientific appellations which 
w T ould only puzzle because they are incomprehensible to 
minds unfamiliar to geological nomenclature. The ex- 
pression " a sandy soil," is well understood ; but let it 
never be applied to any soil that does not contain at least 
three parts out of four of sand. Then, again, sandy soils 
that effervesce or give off carbonic acid or fixed air, when 
vinegar or vitriol is poured upon them, should be distin- 
guished by the name of " sandy limestone soils," to mark 
them from sandy soils that contain silex or the earth of 
flint. The term " clayey soil," should not be applied to 
any land which contains less than one-sixth of an earthy 
matter not effervescing with acids ; while the word 
" loam" should be limited to such soils as contain one-third 
of a smooth earthy matter, considerably effervescing with 
acids. A soil to be considered " peaty" ought to contain 
at least one-half of vegetable matter. 

Soils perform at least three functions in reference to 
vegetation. They serve as a basis in which plants may 
fix their roots and sustain themselves in the erect position 



310 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

— they are the medium through which the greater part of 
the inorganic matter of vegetables is supplied to them 
during their growth— and they allow many chemical 
changes to take place that are essential to a right prepa- 
ration of the various kinds of food which are yielded to the 
growing plant. 

The best natural soils are those whence the materials 
have been derived from the breaking up and decomposition, 
not of one stratum or layer, but of many, divided minutely 
by air and water, and minutely blended together ; and in 
improving soils by artificial additions, the farmer cannot do 
better than imitate the processes of nature. 

We have spoken of soils as consisting mostly of sand, 
lime, and clay, with certain saline and organic substances 
in smaller and varying proportions ; but the examination 
of the ashes of plants shows that a fertile soil must of ne- 
cessity contain an appreciable quantity of at least eleven 
different substances, which in most cases exist in greater 
or less relative abundance in the ash of cultivated plants ; 
and of these the proportions are not by any means imma- 
terial. The labor requisite for the permanent improve- 
ment of land is repaid by correspondent advantage ; the 
materials for the necessary adjustment are seldom far dis- 
tant. If coarse sand be requisite, it is mostly or often 
found immediately over the chalky soil that needs it ; and 
beds of sand and gravel are common below clay. Capital 
laid out in this way, secures for ever the productiveness 
and consequent value of the land. 

In ascertaining the composition of barren soils with a 
view to their productiveness, or of partially unproductive 
land, in order to its amendment, they should be compared 
with fertile soils in the same neighborhood, and in similar 
situations ; as the difference of composition will, in most 
cases, indicate the proper methods of improvement. For 
instance, if on washing a portion of sterile soil it be found 
to contain largely any salt of iron, or any acid matter, it 
may be ameliorated with quick-lime, which removes the 
sourness, or ? in other words, combines with and neutralizes 



PRODUCTIVE SOILS. 311 

the acid. For though pure fresh burnt caustic lime is inju- 
rious to vegetation, yet in combination with acid (as in 
chalk) it proves eminently serviceable. A soil, apparently 
of good texture, was put into the hands of Sir Humphrey 
Davy for examination, said to be remarkable for its unfit- 
ness for agricultural purposes ; he found it contained sul- 
phate of iron, or green copperas, and offered the obvious 
remedy of top-dressing with lime, which decomposes the 
sulphate. So if there be an excess of lime, in any form, 
in the soil, it may be removed by the application of sand 
or clay. Soils too abundant in sand are benefited by the 
use of clay or marl, or vegetable matter. To a field of 
light sand that had been much burnt up by a hot summer, 
the application of peat was recommended as a top-dress- 
ing : it was attended not only with immediate advantage, 
but the good effects were permanent. A deficiency of 
vegetable or animal matter is easily discoverable, and may 
as easily be supplied by manure. On the other hand, an 
excess of vegetable matter may be removed by paring and 
burning, or by the application of earthy materials. The 
effect of paring and burning is easily understood. The 
matted sods consist of a mixture of much vegetable with a 
comparatively small quantity of earthy matter ; when these 
are burned, only the ash of the plant is left, intimately 
mixed with the calcined earth. To strew this mixture 
over the exposed soil is much the same as dressing it with 
peat or wood ashes, the beneficial effects of which upon 
vegetation are almost universally recognized. From what 
has been already said, it will be easily evident, that the 
beneficial effect of the burnt ash is chiefly owin^ to the 
ready supply of inorganic and saline material it yields to 
the seeds which may afterwards be scattered there ; be- 
sides which, the roots of weeds and poorer grasses, if not 
exterminated by the paring, are so far injured as to lead to. 
their death and subsequent decomposition. 

The improvement of peats or hogs, or marsh lands, must 
be preceded by draining, stagnant water being injurious to 
all the nutritive classes of plants. Soft black peats, when 



312 PRODUCTIVE FARMING 

drained, are often made productive by the mere application 
of sand or clay as a top-dressing. The first step to be taken, 
in order to increase the fertility of nearly all improvable 
lands, is to drain them. So long as they remain wet, they 
will continue to be cold. Where too much water is 
present in the soil, that food of the plant which the soil 
supplies is so much diluted and weakened that the plant is 
of necessity scantily nourished. By the removal of the 
superfluous water, the soil crumbles, becomes less stiff and 
tenacious, air and warmth gain ready access to the roots of 
the growing plant ; the access of air (and consequently 
of the carbonic acid which the atmosphere freely supplies) 
being an essential element in the healthy growth of the 
most important vegetable productions. Every one knows 
that when water is applied to the bottom of a flower-pot 
full of soil it will gradually find its way to the surface, 
however light that soil may be : so, in sandy soils or sub- 
soils in the open field. If water abound at the depth of a 
few feet, or if it so abound at certain seasons of the year, 
such water will rise to the surface ; and as the sun's heat 
causes it to dry off, more water will rise to supply its 
place. This attraction from beneath will always go on 
most strongly when the air is dry and w r arm, and so a 
double mischief will ensue ; the soil will be kept cold and 
wet; and instead of a free passage of air dow T n wards about 
the growing roots, there will be established a constant 
current of water upwards. Of course, the remedy for all 
this is an efficient system of drainage. 

In general, the soils which are made up of the most 
various materials are those called alluvial, which have 
been formed from the depositions of floods and rivers. 
Many of these are extremely fertile. Soils consist of two 
parts ,• of an organic part, which can readily be burned 
away when the surface-soil is heated to redness ; and of 
an inorganic part, which remains fixed in the fire, consist- 
ing of earthy and saline substances ; from which, if 
carbonic acid, or any elastic gas be present, it may, how- 
ever, be driven by the heat. The organic part of soils is 



PRODUCTIVE SOILS. 313 

derived chiefly from the remains of vegetables and animals 
which have lived and died in and upon the soil, which 
have been spread over it by rivers and rains, or which 
have been added by the industry of man for the purposes of 
increased fertility. 

This organic part varies much in quantity, as well as 
quality, in different soils. In peaty soils it is very abun- 
dant, as well as in some rich long cultivated lands. In 
general, it rarely amounts to one-fourth, or .25 per cent, 
even in our best arable lands. Good wheat soils contain 
often as little as 8 parts in the 100 of organic animal or 
vegetable matter : oats and rye will grow in a soil con- 
taining only lj per cent. ; and barley when only 2 or 3 
parts per cent, are present. In very old pasture-lands, and 
in gardens, vegetable matter occasionally accumulates, so 
as to be injurious, and overload the upper soil. This 
decaying vegetable, or animal matter, is the " humus" 
previously adverted to, and incorrectly supposed, before 
our day, to afford almost the sole nutriment essentially 
necessary to the growing plants. That living plants derive 
from the remains of their decayed predecessors the advan- 
tage of being placed in contact with the inorganic or saline 
materials those plants once contained, is not to be denied. 
But unless the whole crop were plowed in, every year, 
this quantity would be exceedingly minute. The true 
value of green crops plowed into the soil, or of decaying 
vegetable matter, the " humus" of former writers, is the 
formation of carbonic acid by the combination of decom- 
posed carbonaceous or woody fibre with atmospheric 
oxygen ; thus supplying to the new and young roots 
carbon in a form susceptible of being taken up by them. 

The inorganic portion of any given soil is again divisible 
into two portions — namely, that part which is soluble in 
water, and, therefore, in a state easily susceptible of being 
taken up by the vessels of a growing vegetable, and of a 
further and much more bulky portion which is insoluble in 
water. The soluble portion consists of saline substances — 
the insolubkj of earthy materials. 
15* 



314 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

A slvgle grain of saline matter in every pound of a soil 
a foot deep, is equal to 500 pounds in every acre, which is 
more than is carried off from the land in the course of 40 
years, supposing that the wheat and barley are sent to 
market, and the straw and green crops are regularly return- 
ed to the soil in the shape of manure. 

Sprengel, a German chemist, now at the head of the 
Prussian agricultural school, whose own taste, as well as 
his professional duty, have long directed his attention to 
scientific cultivation of the soil, — has published an exact 
analysis of two varieties of productive soil, of which the 
following is an abstract : — ■ 

The first is a very fertile alluvial soil from East Fries- 
land, formerly overflowed by the sea, but, for sixty years, 
cultivated with corn and pulse without manure. 

The second is a fertile soil near Gottingen, which pro- 
duces excellent crops of clover, pulse, rape, potatoes, and 
turnips ; the two last more especially when manured with 
gypsum. 

One thousand parts of each of these soils, after washing, 
gave — 



Soluble saline matter, 

Fine earthy and organic matter, (clay) 

Siliceous sand, 



No. 1. 


No. 2. 


18 


I 


937 


839 


45 


160 


1000 


1000 



The most striking distinction presented by these numbers 
is the large quantity of saline matter in the first variety. 
It consisted of common salt, muriate of potash, the 
sulphates of potash, gypsum, magnesia, and iron, with 
phosphate of soda, and other salts. The presence of this 
comparatively large quantity of these different saline sub- 
stances, originally derived, no doubt, in great part from the 
sea, was probably one reason why it could be so long crop- 
ped without manure. Its composition illustrates the truth 
of the statement, that a considerable supply of all the 



PRODUCTIVE SOILS. 315 

species of inorganic materials is necessary to render a soil 
eminently fertile. Not only does this soil contain a com- 
paratively large quantity of the soluble saline matters 
above enumerated, but it contains also 10 per cent, of 
organic matter, and some lime. The potash and soda, 
and the several acids, are also present in sufficient abun- 
dance. 

In the second instance, a fertile soil, but which could not 
dispense with manure, there is little soluble saline matter ; 
and in the insoluble portion, only traces of potash, soda, 
and important acids. It contains, also, 5 per cent, of 
organic matter, and 2 per cent, of lime, which smaller 
proportions, together with the deficiency of alkalies, remove 
this soil from the most naturally fertile class, to that class 
which is susceptible, in hands of ordinary skill, of being 
brought to, and kept in a very productive condition. 

Sir Humphrey Davy examined some productive soils, 
which were very different in their composition. 

We will state the analysis of a few of them. 

Soil from Holkham, Norfolk, described as a " good turnip 
soil" contained 8 parts out of 9 of siliceous sand ; that 
is, sand with flint earth, or silex : the remaining l-9th 
part consisted, in every 100 grains, of— 

Carbonate of lime, (chalk) 

Pure silex, 

Pure alumina, or the earth of clay, 
Oxide (rust) of iron, 
Vegetable, and other saline matter, 
Moisture and loss, . . . 



63 


grains 


15 


grains 


11 


grains 


3 


grains 


5 


grains 


3 


grains 



100 

Thus the whole amount of organic matter in this instance 
is only 1 part in 200, or one-half per cent. ; a fact which, 
in itself, would demonstrate the fallacy of supposing that 
decomposed animal and vegetable matter in the soil forms 
the exclusive supply to growing plants. 

In another instance, soil was taken from a field in Sussex, 
remarkable for its growth of flourishing oak trees. It 



316 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

consisted of 6 parts of sand, and 1 part of clay and finely- 
divided matter. One hundred grains of it yielded, in 
chemical language — 

Of silica, (or silex) 54 grains. 

Of alumina, 28 grains. 

Carbonate of lime, . 3 grains. 

Oxide of iron, ...... 5 grains. 

Vegetable matter in a state of decomposition, 4 grains. 

Moisture and loss, 6 grains. 

100 

To wheat soils, the attention of the practical farmer will 
be most strongly directed. An excellent wheat soil 
from West Drayton, in Middlesex, yielded 3 parts in 5 of 
siliceous sand ; and the remaining two parts consisted of 
carbonate of lime, silex, alumina, and a minute proportion 
of decomposing animal and vegetable remains. 

Of these soils, the last was by far the most, and the first, 
the least coherent in iexture. In all cpses, the constituent 
parts of the soil which give tenacity and stiffness, are the 
finely-divided portions ; and they possess this quality in 
proportion to the quantity of alumina (or earth of clay) 
they contain. A small quantity of this finely-divided mat- 
ter is sufficient to fit a soil for the growth of turnips, or of 
barley, as turnips will grow (though it is not to be 
expected they will thrive) on a soil containing 11 parts 
out of 12 of sand. Sand in much greater proportion, or 
rather disproportion, produces sterility. So pure alumina, 
or pure silex, pure chalk, or magnesia, are incapable of 
supporting vegetation ; and no soil is fertile that contains 
19 parts out of 20 of any one of the materials that have 
been mentioned. 

Sprengel gives also the analysis of an unproductive soil 
from Luneburg. It contained, in 1000 parts — - 

Soluble saline matter, 1 part. 

Fine earthy and organic matter, (clay) . . 599 parts. 
Silieeous sand, . .... 400 parts. 

1000 



PRODUCTIVE SOILS. 317 

This unfruitful soil, compared with the analysis given of 
the other two on a previous page, will be found to be the 
lightest of the three, containing 40 per cent, of sand. But 
this alone is not enough to account for its barrenness, — 
many light soils containing a larger proportion of sand, 
and yet sufficiently fertile. One thousand parts of its fine 
earthy matter contain 40 of organic matter instead of 97, 
— 778 of silica instead of 648, — 91 of alumina instead of 
57, — 4 of lime instead of 59, — 1 of magnesia instead of 
10, — 81 of oxide of iron instead of 61 ; while potash, soda, 
ammonia, chlorine, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, car- 
bonic acid, are entirely wanting ; such being the ingredients 
and quantities in 1000 parts of the finer portion of the very 
fertile soil from East Friesland. The oxide of iron is in 
excess in the Luneburg barren soil ; there requires, there- 
fore, to be added, not only those substances of which it is 
destitute, but such other matters as shall prevent the inju- 
rious effects of the excessive proportion of iron. This 
illustration may serve to aid the practical farmer in com- 
prehending how far exact chemical analysis is fitted to 
throw light upon the capabilities of soils, and to direct 
agricultural practice. The constitution of a soil, like the 
constitution of a horse, or a human being, requires to be 
known and understood, if we would prescribe otherwise 
than at random, expensively, unprofitably, or injuriously, 
either for the diseases of the one, or for the deficiencies of 
the other. 

The varying power of soils to absorb and retain water 
from the air, is much connected with their fertility. Sir 
Humphrey Davy has remarked upon this ; and connecting 
his statement with the fact, that rain-water always con- 
tains ammonia, and, consequently, nitrogen (as one of the 
elements of ammonia), we can easily understand why it 
should be so. He observes, that " the soils which are 
most efficient in supplying a plant with water by absorp- 
tion and retention from the atmosphere, are those in which 
there is a due mixture of sand, finely divided clay and chalk, 
with some animal and vegetable matter ; and yet so loose 



318 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

and light, as to allow of the action of the air beneath the 
surface." Sand in excess destroys the requisite stiffness 
of the soil, but gives little absorbent power. 

The absorbent power of land is always greatest on the 
most fertile soils, thus affording one ready test of produc- 
tiveness. One thousand grains of soil, rendered perfectly 
dry by exposure to heat equal to that of boiling-water, 
ought, by exposure to air, saturated with moisture, to gain 
in weight, at least, 18 grains, or one-fiftieth ; so that the 
standard of fertility of soils for different plants must vary 
with the climate, (as well as the varying constitution of 
the soil itself), and be particularly influenced by the 
quantity of rain that falls upon it. The power of soils to 
absorb moisture ought to be much greater in warm or dry 
counties, than in cold, marshy places ; and the quantity of 
clay they contain, greater. The inference is obvious : if 
deficient, it ought to be added. Soils, also, on the slope 
of a hill, ought to be more absorbent than in plains, or in 
the bottom of valleys. Their productiveness is also much 
influenced by the nature of the subsoil on which they 
rest ; for, when soils are immediately situated upon a bed 
of rock or stone, they dry sooner by the sun's agency, than 
when the subsoil is clay or marl. A prime cause of the 
fertility of the land in the moist climate of Ireland is, that 
happily the surface-soil rests upon a rocky substratum. 
A clay subsoil will sometimes be of material advantage to 
a sandy upper-soil, inasmuch as it will retain the necessary 
moisture in such a manner as to be capable of supplying 
that lost by the earth above in consequence of evapora- 
tion. In the same way, a sandy or gravelly subsoil often 
corrects the imperfection of too great a degree of absorb- 
ent power in the true soil. 

In devoting the different parts of an estate to the ne- 
cessary crops, it is perfectly evident that no general 'prin- 
ciple can be laid down, except when all the circumstances 
of the nature, composition, and situation of the soil and 
subsoil are accurately known. 

Whatever be the specific variety of the surface-soil, it 



PRODUCTIVE SOILS. 319 

will, of necessity, take its character from the prevalent 
substratum. In limestone countries, where the surface is 
a species of marl, the soil is often found only a few inches 
above the limestone, and its fertility is not impaired by the 
nearness of the rock : though, in a less absorbent soil, this 
situation would occasion barrenness ; and the sandstone 
and limestone hills in Derbyshire and North Wales may 
be easily distinguished at a distance in summer by the 
different tints of their vegetation. The grass on the sand- 
stone hills usually appears brown and parched, that on 
the limestone hills flourishing and green. 

Each locality will continue to present to the agricultur- 
ist facilities for the cultivation of such Vegetables as it is 
best fitted to raise, and for an indefinite period ; that is, 
until the exhaustion of its saline materials, its capability 
will continue. In clayey soils, it will continue longest ; 
because, as previously explained, all clays contain potash 
and soda. But even these in time are exhausted. Air, 
water, and the changing temperature of the seasons, are 
at the same time preparing a remedy for the coming defi- 
ciency. Fresh surfaces of broken, crumbling rock are in 
a state of continual formation, exposing to the elements 
the saline treasures they contain. A period will arrive in 
the history of all soils, when, if their saline constituents 
are not artificially replaced, it will be necessary, either by 
deep plowing, or other mechanical modes of breaking up 
and exposing the rock from which that soil has been 
formed, to obtain a fresh supply of soluble alkalies. 
When the surface of a granite rock has been long subject- 
ed to the action of air and w r ater, the lime and the potash 
it contains are acted on by both ; the felspar, mica, and 
quartz, of which that rock is compounded, are decom- 
posed. The felspar, which is, as it were, the cement of 
the stone, forms a fine clay; the mica, partially decom- 
posed, mixes with it as sand ; and the undecomposed 
quartz appears as gravel, or coarse sand, of different de- 
grees of fineness. Then, as soon as the smallest layer of 
earth is formed in this way, the seeds of mosses, and other 



320 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

imperfect vegetables constantly floating in the atmos- 
phere, and which have made that spot their resting-place, 
becin to vegetate : their annual reproduction and death 
furnishes a certain quantity of organizable matter, which 
mixes with the earthy materials of the rock. In this 
improved soil, more perfect plants are capable of subsist- 
ing, the gradual process being, in truth, an epitome of the 
world's original creation. Fossil geology shows us that 
such was the process ; and that not until a soil was formed 
by the decay of reeds and mosses, was the earth's surface 
fitted to rear the stately oak. With every fresh disinte- 
gration of the surface, successive quantities of alkaline 
materials are presented to the growing vegetable. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Of the Chemical Analysis of Soils, and how far this is practicable 

by the Farmer. 

Enough has been already written to show what is essen- 
tial to the production of heavy crops, and to prove that a 
naturally good soil can be forced, or an inferior soil amend- 
ed, only by the addition of such substances as are really 
requisite in each particular instance ; such adaptation, of 
course, presupposing an exact acquaintance with the na- 
ture of the land. 

But the practical farmer will anticipate the inquiry, 
How am I to arrive at this knowledge 1 I am no chemist : 
I can form some general notion of the composition of the 
soil which I cultivate; and, from experiments (some of 
which have been fortunate, others confessedly expensive 
and unproductive), I am enabled to say what seems to 
agree best with it. Is it necessary to employ a scientific 
chemist to analyze my wheat soils, or are the means of 
discovery within my own power ? 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 321 

In reply to such very natural inquiries — to a certain 
extent, the means of analysis are within the reach of every 
working farmer. Nevertheless it is perfectly true, that 
the management and tilling of the soil is a branch of prac- 
tical chemistry ; and, like the arts of dyeing, calico-print- 
ing, or the smelting of metals, it may advance, to a cer- 
tain degree of perfection — its present condition (which 
has been stationary and imperfect for many centuries) 
— without the aid of science ; but it can only have its pro- 
cesses explained, and be led on to shorter, more economi- 
cal, more productive, and perfect processes, by the aid of 
scientific principles. 

From the analyses of Davy and Sprengel, already given, 
of soils known to be eminently productive (and two or 
three such illustrations are as good as a thousand), it is 
not difficult to say of what materials a good wheat soil 
ought to consist. It is impossible to compare any given 
soil with these standards, unless we have a similar exam- 
ination instituted ; and if it can be obtained from the hands 
of an able investigator, it is always very desirable, so much 
so as amply to repay the trifling expense. Chemistry has 
rendered many and great services to agriculture, and can 
render more : the two sciences ought not to be considered 
as having no relation to each other ; on the contrary, prac- 
tical farming is only conducted on rational principles when 
directed by chemical science. Hitherto it has fallen in 
with the humor or bias of only a few scientific men to en- 
ter upon such inquiries. Sir Humphrey Davy, the great- 
est chemist of his age, devoted his efforts not only labori- 
ously, but most usefully, to the prosecution of agricultural 
chemistry ; and the recent views and discoveries of Lie- 
big, w T ill do much to economize agricultural operations, as 
well as to direct the farmer to the easiest and shortest 
modes of doubling his crops. But, generally, the appre- 
ciation of such efforts, on the part of learned men, has been 
so small — the reception of scientific results and suggestions 
by the farming tenantry, so ungracious, that little wonder 
can exist that so many have quitted the field in disgust — 



322 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

that the majority of able chemists should studiously avoid 
it. Hence it has happened that, in England, the analysis 
of soils has rarely been undertaken, except as a matter of 
professional business. Exact chemical analysis is a diffi- 
cult art, one which demands much knowledge and skill in 
practice. It calls for both time and perseverance, if valu- 
able, trust-worthy, and minutely correct results are to be 
obtained. But it is only by aiming after such minutely 
correct results that chemistry is likely to throw light on 
the peculiar properties of those soils, which, while they 
possess much general similarity in appearance, are yet 
found, in practice, to possess very different agricultural 
capabilities. 

Sir Humphrey Davy has given, with his usual precision, 
very copious directions for the analysis of soils. But we 
have no hesitation in affirming, that few practical farmers 
are likely to attempt the task. Not that the requisite in- 
struments are either numerous or expensive, but that some 
familiarity with chemical operations is necessary 3 and that 
little dependence could be placed upon results which, if 
incorrect, would mislead, perhaps, more widely than the 
merest guesses. Fortunately there are to be found men 
of ability in sufficient numbers to supply the requisite in- 
formation ; and there is nothing more inconsistent in soli- 
citing from a practical chemist a statement as to the actual 
composition of a given portion of soil, with a view to the 
supply of its deficiencies, than there is in employing a 
veterinary surgeon, not only to give an opinion as to the 
nature of the ailment of a. horse, but to advise the appro- 
priate remedy. 

Undoubtedly the utility and necessity of such interfer- 
ence or assistance may sound strangely — grate harshly 
upon the long-established usages of that class of farmers 
with whom, unfortunately, mere exertion is a virtue, and 
skill or science a presumed apology for laziness. It would 
appear, however, that in some agricultural districts, a spirit 
in most rational conformity with such combinations of sci- 
ence with mere brute labor, is beginning to prevail. Early 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS. &23 

in the present year, a meeting of landed gentry and farm- 
ers took place in Edinburgh, for the express purpose of 
forming an association for the application of chemistry to 
agriculture ; a tolerably expressive indication of the state 
of public feeling in Scotland, and one that, we trust, will 
be followed up by the organization of kindred institutions 
throughout the country. The great and leading object of 
the association is to have a chemist of first-rate eminence, 
resident in Edinburgh, who, during the winter months, 
shall devote himself to analyzing such soils, manures, and 
other substances as may be sent him by farmers, and giv- 
ing them advice regarding their value and usefulness. In 
summer he will visit different districts of the country, at the 
request of members of the association, and give a few lec- 
tures in the towns, or advice to individuals, regarding the 
system of management best suited to different soils. It is 
easy to see that all this will be attended with very great 
practical benefits to the country. 

We are aware, however, that there are persons w T ho 
have a distrust of the aid to be had from chemistry in the 
delicate and refined processes of agriculture ; and to them 
we would address a few words. 

Now, the more recondite principles of vegetation are 
subjects on which neither chemist nor farmer will require 
to touch. Indeed, there will be no call made on thefarm* 
ers, or persons wishing the analysis, for any chemical 
knowledge. They are to submit limestones, bone-dust, 
guano, and manures of all kinds, marls, decaying rocks, 
and such like substances, to the chemist, and he is to pro- 
nounce on their value, and to point out their utility in 
reference to different soils, and for raising different crops. 
He will say, for example, whether the guano has been 
robbed of its ammonia, or the bone-dust of its gelatine, or 
whether the limestone be colored with bituminous matter 
which will disappear with burning, or with iron which 
will not ; and then he will be able to say what price the 
article ought to bear, and with what crops, on what soils, 
and at what periods it ought to be used. On the part of 



324 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

the person who sends the substance for analysis, it is plain 
that no knowledge of chemistry is required ; and even the 
chemist will not find his duty an arduous one. A few 
chemical tests, and an accurate balance, will be nearly all 
that he will require ; and he will have no occasion to 
approach those nice and subtile operations of nature, over 
which there certainly hangs a delicate and almost impene- 
trable veil. 

But the summer duties of the chemist will be even more 
important than the analyses which are to occupy his win- 
ter hours. During that season he will impart information 
on many of the more recent discoveries and improvements 
in practical agriculture ; and already enough has been 
done to admit of his giving much valuable and curious in- 
formation, whether, in the form of lectures, or by commu- 
nicating with individuals. For example, the good effects 
of bone-dust, and of the phosphates generally, on peaty 
soils — of saline compounds for crops of hay on loams in 
trap districts— and of lime on granitic soils — may be men- 
tioned, and they admit of explanation. They are noticed 
here as a proof of the advancement already made in this 
kind of knowledge. But much yet remains to be done ; 
and besides giving information, it will be his duty no less 
to suggest experiments. He will give instructions to 
farmers to make trial of substances, the composition of 
which is known and determinate, on different soils, and 
with a variety of crops, accurately noting the weight of 
the produce, both in its dry and moist state. And who 
does not see that such trials, made on a diversity of soils 
(for, in this respect, the experiments will have the advan- 
tage over any which the chemist could make himself on 
an experimental farm), will furnish him with results from 
which he may possibly draw some general principle. 
This, again, may point the way to other trials and new 
discoveries ; and so on without limit. 

Need we say what will be the benefits of all this training 
and experiment ? In the first place there will be a gain 
to the country at large in the increased productiveness of 



FERTILIZERS. 325 

the land ; and in this those will be the first to share who 
first know of the new methods that will give them crops 
at a lower cost than their neighbors. And, in the second 
place, a spirit of intelligence and inquiry cannot fail to be 
diffused among our farmers, of which it will be difficult to 
estimate the value. Instead of blindly following in the old 
courses, they will have a pleasure in devising new ones, 
and will gradually raise themselves in the scale of being. 
And if it be true that even the mechanical arts will fall 
oiF, as De Tocqueville has admirably shown, if their prin- 
ciples are lost sight of, just as copies taken from copies 
decline at last from the original, much more will the fields 
of the farmer, changing in their composition with every 
crop that is taken from them, reward none at last but the 
intelligent and the skilful. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Of Advertised "Fertilizers" for the Soil. 

The publication of more scientific and enlarged views 
respecting the nature of vegetable growth, has led to the 
attempt to furnish mineral compositions to meet the sup- 
posed deficiency of saline matters in the soil. Their 
inventors secure the secret of each such composition by a 
patent ; in other instances they are left unprotected : 
nevertheless, it is a matter of no difficulty to say of what 
materials they chiefly consist. Now, there are such things 
as patent medicines, and, unquestionably, there is scarcely 
one of them that may not be good for some ailment or 
other. The mischief of such nostrums is, that they are 
recommended as universal specifics ; they will cure every- 
thing. As any one may read of the last new fashionable 
pills, that they have stood the test of thousands of trials, 
and proved efficacious in the removal of the direst and most 



326 PRODUCTIVE FARMING. 

diversified evils that can infest humanity ; so of these agri- 
cultural specifics, it is said that " their efficacy has been 
submitted to innumerable tests since the ingredients were 
discovered ; by which trials their utility has been amply 
demonstrated in all instances." Now, this is saying too 
much. Macassar oil may cause a luxuriant growth of 
hair ; but rubbed upon a deal box, it will not convert it 
into a hair-trunk before the morning: and so a remedy, 
said to be universally useful, mostly proves (whether land 
or living creatures be the subject of experiment) of little 
use in any instance. In some cases that have fallen under 
our own notice, the guano, which these mineral manures 
were intended to supersede, has proved a far more strongly- 
fertilizing substance. And if there had been no deficiency 
of the materials of which guano is exclusively composed, — 
if purely saline and earthy, rather than animal matter, had 
been wanting, the balance of recommendation would 
undoubtedly have turned the other way. All this shows 
that it is folly to add to a soil any other matters than pre- 
cisely those which are exhausted or deficient ; and that this 
can only rationally be attempted after close examination 
of the materials of which that soil is composed. 

Let us suppose that this is done, and that an artificial 
saline or mineral compost is judiciously and accurately put 
together, either to meet the deficiency, or added to a tole- 
rably good soil to increase its fertility. The advantages 
of its use are not overstated in a recent pamphlet. 

1st, It is cheap, compared with its value : a twenty 
shilling cask will supply an acre. 

2d, It is light and easily carried, when compared with 
carting manure. 

3d, It is suitable for small holders who cannot afford 
soiling, or keeping of cattle for making dung-heaps. 

4th, It enables a tenant-at-will to take a good crop out 
of done-out land, if his landlord refuse to renew. 

5th, It furnishes to barren land such food for plants as 
had been deficient ; such defects of one or more substances 
being, in general, the cause of sterility. 



FERTILIZERS. 32't 

6th 9 It enables the cultivator to extract ten times as 
much vegetable aliment for his plants from the soil, and 
from other manure, as they could otherwise, in most cases, 
yield. 

This is the language of one who has devoted much 
time, talent, and energy to the task of improving the soil ; 
and he believes there are no soils which may not be 
permanently fertilized by the mineral compost which forms 
his invention. Thus he speaks of its powers. But bear- 
ing in mind the remarks we have already made, every 
practical farmer must advance upon his own responsibility 
in making trial of its capabilities ; the object of this work 
being, not the introduction of advertised artificial manures 
into the notice of the agricultural world, but rather the 
dissemination of those sound and rational views of the 
necessary relations between practical farming and prac- 
tical science, without which Agriculture must still lag 
behind the age, and, though the first and most important 
of all arts, remain for ever stationary. 



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